Guilty
by Fantabulasogurl
Summary: It was quite simple, really. He was just a boy and she was just a girl. The problem was, people are inherently complicated, These two more than most. Perhaps it would've begun much more simply if they hadn't hated each other, she hadn't tried to kill him, and he hadn't hated himself. Everyone is guilty of something. An AH story.
1. Chapter 1

It was quite simple really. He was just a boy and she was just a girl. The problem is that people are inherently complicated, these two more than most. Perhaps it would've began much more simply if they hadn't hated each other, she hadn't tried to kill him, and he hadn't hated himself. But really, simple stories don't make very good ones, now do they?

* * *

 _Percy_

Percy felt himself shaking as he kneeled in front of the gods in the tattered throne room. Olympus lay in shambles, but Kronos was gone and that was all that was _supposed_ to matter. It _should_ all be worth it, he should feel like he won _something_ shouldn't he?

The battle had gone on for days, had seemed to go on for years; the last four years of his life had been dedicated to stopping Kronos, even when he didn't always realize it. His life had revolved around this, and now, it was all gone. Relief and exhaustion were his most pressing emotions, but he felt still felt a niggling sense of doubt trembling in the back of his mind; what was he supposed to do now? The only thing he knew for certain was that he was making the right decision about this proposal.

"Are you sure? My son, immortality is quite an offer to turn down," Poseidon asked from his throne. His expression was easy to read. He was confused, and maybe a little disappointed, but he knew his son, and he would just have to understand that Percy wasn't that person. He didn't have to know that death didn't sound nearly as awful as being trapped with this guilt until the end of time. Immortality would have been far more of a curse than a blessing, whatever his morals said was just a very important side benefit. Allowing himself to be painted as a martyr wasn't that difficult, since he knew that he was just a coward.

"Yes, father, with all due respect, I think I made the right decision." Zeus looked skeptical as his steely eyes appraised the boy in front of him, judging him harshly. His eyebrows were drawn low, and he was scowling. Aphrodite cleared her throat from the end of the other side of the room, propping herself forward in her throne to peer around the thrones. She gave Zeus a pointed look, reminding Percy of the face second wives whip out when they try to get their way on bad reality shows. Zeus frowned some more.

"It is our decision that we should entrust you with one more thing, a spoil of war, you could say." Zeus announced. Aphrodite beamed, and Hera's eyes widened as he lips pursed. The air between the goddesses seemed to crackle with hostility. Percy glanced down the row of gods and goddesses, trying to gauge what was going on. On one hand, Athena looked stressed beneath her thin veneer of steely resolve, on the other Artemis was certainly not staying quiet on the issue.

"Really, Zeus, you will entrust something so valuable, so precious, to a teenage boy?" Percy thought he and Artemis were on okay terms since December, but apparently, he was wrong. Apparently he had lost his "man" status in the past few months, which was kind of a good trick if you thought about it. He didn't see why he couldn't be trusted with a trophy, especially since they trusted him with a war.

"He deserves the reward, he is the reason we are here today. He is exactly the right person, he can help change the threat into an asset, and a teenage boy is precisely right for handling and manipulating something so, off balance." Aphrodite made sure to slip her two cents in, and shot a pointed look at Artemis, who barred her teeth in a gesture that was more animal than human. It was never a good sign when debates dissolved into primal displays of aggression. It was kind of hot if he was being honest.

"The job should be entrusted to me and my hunters, we have the most experience dealing with matters like this," She argued. Artemis's merry band of man hating teenage girls should probably not be in charge of any sort of spoil of war in Percy's opinion. Something tells him they wouldn't hesitate to turn whatever it was against any male in a three mile radius. They weren't big fans of him, they listened to him and followed his orders because of Thalia's friendship, but they would stab him the first chance they got. They weren't exactly fans of his dating habits. "Athena, don't you agree with me?"

Artemis was looking for allies, but it didn't appear she'd be finding any.

"I do not have a say in the matter," Athena responded, and while her words were diplomatic, her tone was defeated. Artemis was surprised, but she searched the council for sympathizers, and found none.

"Zeus, you are on my side, correct?" Aphrodite's tone was challenging and when Percy looked back at Zeus, his expression was exhausted. He actually rolled his eyes before continuing. The boredom was becoming ridiculous as he couldn't follow the conversation and Percy realized his knees were beginning to hurt.

"Yes, do you accept this small reward, Perseus?" Zeus asked finally, and when Percy nodded, Poseidon seemed to be appraising his son.

"Then it is done, good luck," Zeus finished with an air of finality. Percy's gut twisted, and he wanted to get back to his cabin as soon as possible. The only thing he needed now was sleep, and whatever the mysterious reward was, it could wait until he could feel his legs.

…

Percy sighed as he crossed over the top of Half-Blood Hill. The fighting had been brutal and taxing, and now all he wanted to do was sleep in his own bed. Tomorrow would be filled with burning shrouds and mourning, and for Percy there would be lots of time alone trying to not think. He knew he would have to deal with everything that had happened eventually, and he knew he would have to consider his role in everything that had happened, and he knew that he would have to deal with the guilt, but now was not that time.

Everyone around him was celebrating, at least those who weren't sobbing over dead friends, but Percy just couldn't feel. He couldn't consider the offer the gods had laid at his feet, or why he turned it down, and he couldn't even begin to process whatever Zeus had offered.

...

He tried hard not to think about the empty bed on the other side of the room that was meant for Tyson and flopped onto his own bed without much awareness. He shifted, reaching to turn off the light on his headboard, and froze. Right there, inches away from his nose, was a mass of blonde ringlets. He propped himself up on one arm and stared down at what definitely didn't belong there. The girl's hair covered the majority of her face and the rest was tucked away into the pillow, his pillow. Percy felt both incredibly invaded and shocked out of his mind. She was a pretty girl, and she was in his bed; too bad he had no real control over how she got there. He carefully slid out from under the sheets and stepped outside, silently freaking out with zero shame. This was not normal. He looked around at everyone who hadn't moved out of their post war reactions and searched desperately for one person in particular.

He knew the girl wasn't from Camp Half Blood, he definitely would've recognized her. Random girls didn't usually crawl into his bed without his knowledge, so this was definitely a new experience. Finally, right before he was about to literally run around screaming, he saw the scampering satyr he was looking for.

Grover Underwood was not a large personality. He was not obnoxious, or outspoken, or outwardly brave, but he was loyal, and Percy could appreciate that. The boy pranced over with his hooves clapping along. Percy imagined that being half goat would be inconvenient, but for Grover, it worked. Percy couldn't picture it working so well for him, but there were a lot of things like that.

The excitable guy bounded over to him with a grin a mile wide, but Percy couldn't even remember the emotion that would cause his expression.

"So..what is it?" He asked, nudging his friend gently. Percy just raised an eyebrow questioningly. "You know what I'm talking about, everyone's heard about the reward they got for our own war hero!" Grover sounded excited, the last time Percy had seen him like this was when they came across a food truck selling 2 for 50 cent enchiladas. Grover nudged him again, and the facts hit him like a Mac truck barreling down the interstate. He ignored Grover's excitable blathering and yanked the door to his cabin open. He burst into the room and skidded to a stop right at the foot of his bed, making a gesture as if he was revealing the answer on the Wheel of Fortune, rather than this train wreck. His friend clopped in behind him, and Percy could practically feel the confusion billowing off his companion in highly nervous waves.

"What is that?" Grover made her sound like a very ugly painting that no one wanted. The memory of how Zeus had described her was just as sickening.

"A spoil of war."

 **AN: Hello lovely readers, this is my newest story. It's been in the works for over a year now, so I really hope you like it. I have a bunch of chapters already written, so I should be posting again soon depending on the interest this story gets. If you have any questions, please drop me a review.**


	2. Chapter 2

_Raven_

She rolled over and snuggled further into the sheets, her cheek rubbing against the warm cotton. Happily sighing, she wrapped her arms around the pillow and shifted onto her stomach. Her eyes slowly creaked into focus, and then flew open as she gasped. Those weren't her sheets and this wasn't her bed. She jerked upwards and frantically looked around. She was alone, but the room was cluttered, with armor and clothes scattered about. Were those... Yup, there were boxers on the ceiling fan. So that was a bad sign, but forever the logical thinker, Raven refused to panic. She ran through the information quickly.

Clothes- completely intact, but missing her battle armor

Hangover- absent

Chloroform side effects- none

So, those were good signs. All good signs; but she was there, and she needed to figure out why. The room was bright, cluttered, and clearly housed at least one male. She had spent enough time in the barracks to recognize a male touch when she saw one, and the boxers were a big hint. She looked a little closer and noticed the exposed wooden walls. The place was strange, it appeared to be only one room, and maybe a bathroom, but it was devoid of any sort of amenities. Shrugging, she put the thought out of her mind; she couldn't worry too much about where she was right then. She glanced around one more time, before climbing out of the bed, scolding herself for not taking off immediately.

The door flung open, just as she started to move towards it. Her eyes locked on to a guy she had hoped to never see again, unless she was burying his cold corpse. Percy Jackson stood in the doorway. She knew exactly who he was, even if she had only seen him in person once. He was her enemy and his face was not something she'd ever forget.

"Hey, good to see you awake. How'd you sleep?" He smirked a little and his eyes flicked back towards the bed. She felt the blush spread across her cheeks. If she had to guess, and she did, she would say that was his bed that she woke up in. War strategists didn't deserve this kind of humiliation, and she resolved to ignore his juvenile tactics, at least for the moment. She was definitely missing parts of her memory, and she'd need more information before she acted. She wouldn't want to take on the god's prize fighter without some sort of tactical advantage.

"Just peachy," She crossed her arms over her chest, which she knew as well as anyone was a sign of defensiveness, but as far as she was concerned she was in the middle of enemy territory and defensiveness was pretty much a requirement. His eyes flicked down for a minute and her lip curled in disgust.

Percy started gabbing but Raven stopped listening, doing another mental check of her wellbeing. Her eyes widened as she realized what she had missed and she scrambled to look at her shoulder. She yanked the neck of her t-shirt to her side and strained to see the wound. She had been stabbed in the shoulder during the fighting on bridge, and the last thing she remembered, the wound had been festering, and struggling to heal. As far as she knew, she had passed out in a bunk bed in a YMCA basketball gym. She spotted a mirror to her right, and pushed past the jabbering teen, finally managing to see where the gaping slash had been.

There was nothing, not even a faint scar or scab. All that was left was a tattoo, an intricate trident, with designs like waves and ripples. It wasn't very large, around the size of her fist, but its meaning was clear. She didn't feel like she was going to throw up, she didn't feel faint, she didn't feel like crying; she felt nothing, absolutely nothing.

The words rolled off her tongue like marbles, smoothly sliding and hitting the floor with a sharp click, as shattering as gunfire.

"I'm yours." She spun back to Percy, her hands clenched and her stomach seemed to want to vomit whatever was left in her all the way back to the East River. Percy looked uncomfortable, but satisfied he didn't have to explain it. "You own me."

"Yeah," He answered, his cheeks red and his expression sour.

...

Raven realized with grim irony that she knew exactly where she was and that did not make it any better. She shoved her way outside and ignored the gaping son of Poseidon in her wake. She knew this courtyard, she knew those basketball courts, and she most certainly knew the cabin with the owl adorning it's entryway. She had hoped to never see that place again, not unless it was burned to the ground with the rest of this camp. The space was packed, and Raven easily jogged through the crowd without anyone noticing her. She vaguely remembered some of the faces, but most of them were strangers. That made it simpler. She had an inkling as to why she was here, but that didn't matter, if she could get out and get to the city, if she could find Luke, it would all be okay. She just needed to get herself there. Her first step had to be getting out of this snake pit with a meadow façade.

She crossed the stream, ignored the splashes, and even though her stride didn't falter, she felt it, she felt the prickling sensation in her shoulder. She could feel the sharp pressure, as if someone was pressing a needle into her slowly. She jogged across the empty volleyball courts, and the sensation increased, the irritating prickling felt more like a stabbing more and more with every step. She had to slow, but forced herself to keep walking towards the pine tree she could spot up ahead. Her stomach lurched with harsh memories, yet she continued to stumble towards the property line. If she could just get over the hill, just get over the hill. Her shoulder burned and seared as she tried to force it to move, but she had to keep going. The pain intensified, and her legs gave out. She couldn't think, she couldn't breathe, all that was left was searing red and the trunk of Thalia's tree. She grabbed at the pain, her mind forcing her to relive the knife stabbing in, sliding before pulling out, and leaving the horrific feeling of being eaten alive to destroy her. Her teeth clenched, trying to lock in a scream, but she breathed heavily through her nose and her back arched as the pain swelled to insurmountable proportions. It needed to stop, she was so close, so close.

"Oh my gods." A voice broke through the haze and she felt a hand running down her back. "What's wrong?" The most miraculous thing happened then. The pain faded, it slipped away like a physical thing, like a fog retreating back over the ocean or a snake slithering back into its den. The threat wasn't gone, but the immediate crisis was over. Raven flipped over, gasping air with greedy breaths , as her whole body trembled. She looked up at the boy crouching over her. Percy flippin' Jackson, of course. She had spent the last four years figuring out how to destroy him, never thinking they'd ever have to meet.

Of course, he just looked down at her with super concerned puppy dog eyes. It made her want to punch him, repeatedly, with brass knuckles. She heard someone else approaching and groaned, which made Percy sit up a little, as if to clear the way. Great.

"What happened? I thought you said she was out like a light!" That voice was horrifyingly familiar, and Raven glanced at the pine tree's bark mere feet from her. She knew it was coming, but that didn't stop her from avoiding his eyes.

"Annabeth?!" Grover squeaked, and of course, because this reunion had come right out of the Fields of Punishment to be her own personal hell, another old friend arrived.

"It's been a long time child, it's good that you have come home." She looked up at her mentor, her teacher, the closest thing she had to a father, and she spit on his hoof.

"Save your breath old man. I'm not your prodigal son," She scoffed at the ludicrous idea, and sat up slowly, ignoring the slight twinge of pain from her arm. "Seaweed brain here dragged me back and freakin' branded me; this is not my home."


	3. Chapter 3

_Raven_

They stuck her at the ping pong table, the same place all important meetings were held. This, at least, hadn't changed since she was little. The centaur stood at the head of the table, staring down at her with those old eyes that used to inspire and comfort her in equal turns. Now, they sickened her.

She was seated, and pushed in like a child, so effectively she might as well have been shackled down by weighted chains. There's no way she could stand without someone catching up to her faster than she could run. That was how these people operated, they acting under a false pretense of safety and righteous. That was how they sucked you in and manipulated you. It was how it worked.

In front of her was Jackson, the great Perseus Jackson, and to add insult to injury he was looking at her like she was a puppy he had accidentally stepped on. That wasn't patronizing at all. To her right, was Grover, who had clearly just been assigned there to illicit sympathy and to throw Raven off of her game. The worst part, it was working. She hadn't seen him in years, and he had definitely grown up a lot in the meantime. His horns were fully visible through his curly mop of hair. She couldn't look him in the eye; she knew she was indebted to him, even if the poor guy was caught up in the gods' games. She'd have to change his mind and get him out with her when she escaped.

"How much land have you gained?" She asked, digging her fingernails into the plaster surface. Percy looked surprised that she spoke up, but Chiron just folded his hands contemplatively. "I'm not dumb, if I'm here and you're here, it means I was captured, so clearly we had to retreat some, how far back did your luck push us?" Percy's eyes widened, and he looked at Grover, who bleated nervously, his equivalent of a giggle. Chiron's expression was the most worrisome, he looked at her with the saddest eyes she had ever seen. She knew what that meant, pity was an easily recognizable emotion.

"We lost didn't we?" Her stomach dropped as the guess passed her lips. Only it didn't feel like a guess, it felt like a fact, and she knew that feeling better than anyone else.

"Annabeth, I-" Jackson started but Chiron silenced him, trotting over and laying a hand on his shoulder. Her head was torn in so many different directions she didn't even give him hell for using her birth name.

"She's distraught; she needs time to heal." She hated that voice: the fatherly tone he'd always use when he lied. She had a barely resistible urge to hock on his hooves again. "We have other matters to discuss." Percy finally looked up at that and met her eyes as if he felt bad for her. Apparently the lies were starting early. All she could think as she looked into the bright green eyes was that this was wrong. They should be bright blue.

"I wish you were dead." Looking back on it, she probably should've kept that thought to herself. But, what would the fun have been in that? He flinched and stared down at his clenched hands for a moment before picking his head up and staring back at her. She had definitely reached the end of his meager patience. There was anger in his expression that hadn't been there before. He seemed to see something he hated in her as he spit out harsh words.

"The war is over you bitch, your side lost, and there's no use trying to escape. You'll only end up as a pathetic snack for some sort of monster, so its in your best interest to keep your bitchy ass here." It was a good theory, except for the fact she was currently in the snake pit. O _h, how they underestimated her_ , she thought harshly. If Jackson wanted to be blunt, she could be blunt too.

"I hate you, I've spent the last three years of my life studying how to destroy you. I'm not going to bow down, kiss you feet, and be your twisted little slave." Her stomach decided to do a very uncoordinated back flip, and she fought back her revulsion, praying to Kronos that she wouldn't hurl.

"No one wants that, this… situation just kind of happened." Grover interceded, apparently hoping he could mediate. It was a stupid hope. "The gods declared you a spoil of war, and gave you to Percy, so releasing you would be incredibly disrespectful." Of course they did, the gods have been messing with her since she was born, why should that stop now? And god forbid Jackson did anything that even moderately challenged the gods.

"I can shed a little more light on the subject." Chiron said, much to everyone's surprise. "I spoke to Artemis when Percy first discovered you this morning. The gods have decided that your mind is too precious of a thing to waste, they intend for your service to Percy to be a kind of rehabilitation as well as a penance. It was your mother's idea." Dear old mom, the same woman who left her with a negligent father and a step mother who despised her existence.

"Good to know she feels secure enough in her custody to deal out my _services_." She sneered and Jackson turned a shade of red most often found in produce. Did he not like his despicable side being brought up in front of his mentor? What a tragedy that'd she'd be sure to mention it every chance she had.

"Percy will _not_ be taking advantage of the situation, of course." Grover jumped in again, his eyes flicking back and forth between them. Raven hadn't stopped glaring at Percy, and she had no intention of stopping anytime soon either. He was looking at her as if his tiny little brain couldn't compute someone not liking him.

"That being said, Annabeth will continue residing in the Poseidon Cabin, so Percy may keep an eye on her." Chiron ordered, and when he saw Percy's startled expression, he leveled him with hard eyes. "Of course, this is merely a one time exception, and the rule regarding non-related campers of the opposite gender alone in cabins is still firmly in place." Chiron seemed to think the matter was finished, but Raven was nowhere near done.

"What do you want me to do? Wash his socks?" She snarled, forcing herself to stay focused on the here and now, she'd process and get revenge later, for now she just had to survive.

"I'm intending for you to help rebuild and heal camp for now, and we will see as time progresses. Speaking of which, I have war wounds to treat." Chiron's tone was sharper, less Yoda, more Snape, and with a nod to Percy and Grover, he clopped out of the room. Once he left, she quickly started analyzing her best points of escape. Percy's Achilles' blessing would be a disaster to try to go up against, so she'd have to avoid him, but cause the least amount of damage to Grover as possible. Her shoulder throbbed suddenly, with searing pain, and she hissed, clenching her hands into fists to fight the pain.

"Could you stop that?" She growled, and the pain shuddered to a halt, but Jackson just looked at her blankly.

"Stop what?" He asked, and he looked at Grover, as if the satyr could explain some alien creature that had suddenly materialized in front of him.

"Could you quit making this freakin' tattoo try to sear my shoulder?" She demanded, rubbing the spot bitterly. No matter how high her pain tolerance got, it hurt getting stabbed, and it definitely hurt to relive it whenever Jackson felt like it.

"What do you mean?" He asked, and when she gave him a death glare, he clarified. "I'm not doing anything."

"Yeah, so I'm just getting spontaneously stabbed by a ghost every time I think about getting out of here." Whoops, she may have said too much, Jackson seemed too preoccupied to process what she said though, which was a blessing in disguise. Raven looked down at her shoulder, staring at the trident etched into her skin right where her collar bone met her torso. She pulled her shirt back in to place and looked up to see Jackson looming above her. Her reached for her and she leaned backwards. She glared at him, her lips pursed and one eye brow raised. If he thought he was putting his hand anywhere near her…

He reached again and tugged at the collar of her t-shirt, but she smacked his hand away, ignoring the tiny twinge of pain from her shoulder.

"No," She snapped and Jackson pulled his hand back, even though that Achilles' blessing concept kind of made causing any actual pain a null point. He reached for her again, but she didn't hesitate, smacking him again. " _No._ " She always knew intelligence wasn't one of his strong points, but when he reached for her again she really questioned if his mother dropped him on her head.

"Annabeth!" Grover broke in again, and then bleated softly. "Would it be okay if I took a look?" In the grand scheme of things, touching her shoulder wasn't that big of a deal, but Percy Jackson was the gods' golden boy. Grover was just a mislead satyr who didn't understand how he was being manipulated. She pulled her collar and the strap of her bra to the side, and let Grover investigate. He gently pressed his fingers onto the center of ink, and Raven turned her head to the opposite side, glaring at Percy. Grover kept prodding, and then muttered something indiscernible to himself.

"Okay, Annabeth, I want you to do something rebellious." He ordered, and she raised an eyebrow. Should she throw a kegger, steal a cop car, or spray paint her ex's house?

"Excuse me?" She asked, she wanted to cross her arms, but had the feeling moving with Grover so close to her shoulder would be a bad idea.

"Do something Percy wouldn't want you to do." The satyr clarified, and she gave into her first impulse.

"Okay." She punched Jackson with her good arm , and he flinched even though it clearly didn't hurt. Nothing happened, no searing, no puncturing feeling.

"Hmm" Grover mused to himself, and Jackson looked thoroughly offended but kept quiet. "Tell Annabeth not to hit you."

"Don't hit me." Jackson made it sounded like a question, probably because he didn't have any guts or conviction.

"Annabeth?" She smirked at her cue, and punched him again. Unfortunately it wasn't quite as satisfying as her shoulder tried to dislocated itself on a whim. She hissed but the pain ended quickly.

"So it only works with orders?" Jackson guessed, looking at Raven with concern. She wanted to call him some rather nasty names, but decided that wouldn't be a very good idea. She was in his wheelhouse now, and she has to be careful. At least, to a point.

"Or anything that has to do with leaving." Grover added, and they seemed to forget she was there.

"Who do you think created it, Hectate or another of the minors?" Jackson wondered, glancing at the ugly brand on her skin.

"Nemesis." She answered. Percy raised an eyebrow at her, and his face twisted into an interesting expression.

"Wasn't she on the Titan's side?" He asked, looking at Grover for confirmation, who nodded.

"She was on our side, but I assume she would be willing to do anything to gain the Olympians' favor back." The words left a bitter taste in her mouth, and she started to force herself to get used to the fact that the Titans had lost, and if they weren't entirely eradicated; they were severely weakened. There was no way Luke would've let her be captured for this length of time with Kronos' power in his hands. Something in her gut twisted, and it suddenly seemed all too likely that Luke was…gone. These people were responsible, and she had to remember that.

"Why do you think it's her?" Grover asked, looking at her curiously.

"Revenge and atonement are her wheelhouse. It makes sense that if the gods' had the usual impulse to torment me they'd use the revenge goddess to do it." Her tone is curt because the memories aren't fun to recall.

"Why would the gods want to torment you in particular? "She tilted her head and smirked, and Jackson seemed to remember what side she was on. "How high up _were_ you?"

"I was the head strategist." Jackson blinked blankly as if he didn't recognize the term, which was freaking sad when you thought about it. "I was as high up as I could get without being a Titan."

"Oh." He muttered.

"Yeah, _oh_." She smirked, and the room fell into a tense silence, as all three teens fidgeted. Raven intentionally drummed her fingers on the cheap wooden table. She had to rely on them, she had no choice, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

 _ **Percy**_

She sat there with her arms crossed and her lips pouted, while Percy glanced uncertainly at Grover. The satyr shrugged, and looked worriedly at the girl. Grover hadn't had a chance to fill him in on their history yet, but it definitely would be a question saved for later. He understood how his friend had missed it before. It's kind of hard to identify a person when all you can see is hair. At first, he thought she could've been pleasant, what a mistake that was.

He had never really considered the demigods on Kronos' side as his enemies, it was too homicidal to think that way, but apparently, no one on their side had agreed with his view point. Annabeth looked like she was about to sprout fangs and go for the jugular at any second.

"So, I'm gonna go, I have to talk to a guy about a….um… a thing." Grover muttered, and slipped out of the room. Percy rolled his eyes at his friend. The guy was a lot of things, and he definitely pulled through when it counted, but he didn't do so well under pressure.

For Percy, this wasn't really pressure, it was just a tiny little dollop of crap on top of the heaping pile that summed up his life. He knew the gods meant well, it's just this particular dollop was a little medieval, and kind of illegal now.

"Sooo…."

Annabeth just raised an eyebrow at his awkward attempt at starting another conversation. Her plump little mouth twisted into a harsh sneer that was scarily reminiscent of Kronos-possessed-Luke.

"Does Seaweed Brain need a little help?" He startled at that name, picking at his parentage was a little below the belt, and he had heard enough thinly veiled remarks about his intelligence over the years from kids at school.

"What did you just call me?" His voice went cold, and he glared at her as he rested him palms on the table and leaned slightly forward. Annabeth tried to look nonchalant, but he noticed when she tilted away from him.

"Seaweed Brain," She repeated rashly, " it was your codename in our files, it became a bit of a joke between some of us."

"That's nice." He spat. Anger building quickly, who the hell was this girl? She just shrugged, and he found that he wanted to make her understand exactly what was going on here. This girl and her cause got his friends killed, and he wasn't going to let that go. "You know, for all your smarts, I don't think you realize what's happening right now. You say you've been studying me for years, huh? Well then you know how I fight and you know what I'm capable of." Some color drained from her face, and to his surprise she spoke up, even though she sounded like someone about to go bungee jumping for the first time.

"I've seen it, and if I hadn't known about your Achilles' blessing, I might've been impressed." Her hand moved to her shoulder and massaged it absentmindedly, but he was too focused to care very much.

"But you know I beat _your_ best, consistently." He smirked, and she nodded, her mouth sealed, seeming to accept that he had won. "Good, then you know what I'm capable of when pushed. You have no leverage here, and your life is in my hands." There was a weighted pause, and her hands shook slightly with weakness. He latched onto it, drawing on a falsely sympathetic tone. "But I'm a good guy, and I really don't want to hurt you, because frankly I don't want any of this on my plate right now. But I will make your life a living hell if you cause trouble, or if you do anything to hurt my friends here. You, and your army already killed too many to forgive. " He hissed the words, and Annabeth flinched, as if each threat was knife. "Do you understand, Annabeth?" In the space of a breath, she squared her shoulders and shook off her fear, meeting his glare with one equally as scathing.

Her voice was like flames as she spat out "I fully understand your attempt at male bravado, and I'd appreciate it if you'd stop calling me that name. I go by Raven now and as far as I'm concerned, Annabeth's dead."

"As far as I'm concerned what you'd appreciate is entirely irrelevant. Are we clear, Annabeth?" Something seemed to crack, not break, just fracture slightly as she tried to maintain eye contact. She looked down at her trembling hands before muttering her reply.

"Crystal."


	4. Chapter 4

_Raven_

She forced herself to get her crap together on the walk from the Big House to Cabin Three. The Cabin had always been empty when she was here, but now, it seemed there would be two occupants. Camp was mellower than she remembered, and people walked around as if in a trance. War had that affect. Somebody was trying to rally spirits with a volleyball game, but it was really just kind of a pathetic effort on everyone's part. The game screeched to a stop when Raven and her captor passed by. At first it was silent, but then somebody whistled.

Raven turned around, glaring intensely with a biting suggestion on her tongue, but Jackson just grabbed her arm and tugged her along.

"Hey Jackson, wanna share?" One of the guys called out, and Raven's stomach flipped. _your life is in my hands._ The threat echoed ominously in her head . She glanced over at him, and she was sure that her expression was pathetically doe eyed, but she couldn't help it.

Jackson's expression didn't change, he just flipped them off over his shoulder and dragged her along the path until they were out of sight. She yanked her arm out of his grip; forcing herself to square her shoulders, pull on her figurative big girl panties, and get a grip.

"I'm good, thanks." Her tone was sharp, and she was sure that he knew thankful was the last word he should use to describe her mood right now. The whole camp was going to think she's _with_ Jackson, and there was nothing she could do about it. Even if Percy stayed true to his word and didn't take advantage, Chiron's word wouldn't do much where a bunch of teenagers were concerned. She had to get the hell out of here, as soon as she could. At that thought, her shoulder twitched , and she hissed. Jackson stiffened at the same time, and gave her a look, but she painted on her best innocent expression. He didn't seem convinced.

When she stepped onto his porch and into the room, she was once again hit with how very male the space was. Yup, the black boxers still dangled from the fan and Jackson's bed was still unmade, but the smaller one tucked away to the side was made and neat. Jackson let the door slam as he stepped into the room.

"You'll sleep over there, so go ahead and make yourself at home. You can put your stuff in the dresser, the bottom two drawers should be empty." He turned away, and she knew it was only the manners his mother, Sally Jackson had impressed on him that made him say it in the first place, since he seemed uncomfortable just having her there. He studied a picture of him and Grover for a moment before looking back at her with a stern expression. "So, ground rules, no leaving camp, don't even think about manipulating campers onto your side, no attacking me or anyone else, and no weapons without permission." He ticked off the four rules on his fingers, and the malice in the air was practically a tangible thing.

"Where exactly do you expect for me to find weapons, am I just going to" Her snarky response was cut off when she realized she was unarmed, totally unarmed. Jackson's mouth was moving but she didn't hear the words and just shoved past him, flying to his bed. She grabbed his sheets and shook them out, before checking her pockets again.

"What the hell are you doing?" He demanded, grabbing her shoulder, and turning her around. Her eyes watered infuriatingly for a moment before she bit the tears back.

"Your gods took Luke's knife from me, they took _everything_." She hissed, and something changed in Jackson's expression at the mention of Luke. She couldn't identify the emotion that flickered across his face, but it seemed, for a moment as if it could possibly be something as crazy as empathy.

"Look, I'm sorry that happened."He held up his hands, as if signally he was unarmed as well, but that was a stupid notion in and of itself. "but I can't do anything about it, okay?" His tone shifted into something bordering on irritated, which was freakin' rich. She knew as well as he did that this was all his fault.

"Yeah, whatever." She hissed, because it was clearly not okay. That knife had saved her life for years. It was the last thing she had that connected her to home. It was the last thing that connected her to Luke, and if they had really lost the war then Luke was probably…

"You can take a shower and change if you want." He offered, and she stopped her internal panic to give him a dirty look.

"What exactly do you want me to change into Seaweed Brain?" She knew the nickname was dangerous, it had sparked his little lecture earlier, but she would not bend to him, and this time, he let it go.

"Oh, yeah, let me just get you.." He stumbled over to the dresser, catching his foot on a pair of sneakers. She watched as he dug through the drawers before handing her a worn orange,, Camp Half Blood t-shirt and a pair of running shorts. He put the clothes in her hands, but she just looked at him blankly, her mouth open in surprise at just how stupid he was.

"You don't see a problem with this?" Jackson just looked at her blankly. "What am I supposed to do with shorts and a t-shirt three sizes to big?"

"You can roll them up…" He answered timidly, a tiny blush showing on his cheeks. Great, the tough army commander also had never gotten the "girls and boys are different" lecture.

"Jackson, girls need more things than just shirts and t-shirts, am I supposed to wear your boxers too?" He blushed even more vividly, and hastened to smooth down his hair, as if that would somehow make this situation better at all.

"Um, I'll bring you over to the Aphrodite Cabin, I'm sure they have stuff they can give you."

…

Everything about the moment seemed surreal as she stood on Jackson's dingy porch. There was a tiny part of her that was screaming about the fact that she was wasting her time on clothes and not getting the hell out but the near constant ache in her shoulder was firmly discouraging that. For the moment she just had to get through this hell hole until she got her opportunity.

Jackson loped over to the Aphrodite cabin as she watched and she felt a twinge of nausea just looking at that disgusting place. She noticed that the flowers she used to admire were still perfectly maintained despite the war, but what could she expect from the biggest air heads on the planet. Love had always been a horrible distraction. She slipped back into her logical mind and quickly analyzed the situation. Aphrodite had the demeanor of a makeup heiress. Her children were known for vanity and pride. They weren't skilled fighters, strategists, blacksmiths, or magic wielders. As far as a war effort goes, they were pretty much useless. Many people underestimated them, which was when they became dangerous. Silena had been spying for the right side during the war, but had gone rogue as the fighting went on. It wasn't worth it to go through the effort of getting her back, so they cut her loose. Raven wasn't sure if everyone knew about Silena's work as a double agent, but if they didn't then that was something she could exploit, she just had to wait for Jackson to turn his back.

Jackson turned suddenly, and gestured for her to come over. Hesitantly, she walked towards him, glancing at the cabins around her. No one was out in the open, but a few curtains billowed as they were hastily pulled back into place from the inside. She eventually reached the _Malibu Barbie Goes to Camp!_ Cabin, and stopped beside Jackson. She could finally see the person inside, it was a girl with strawberry blond hair wearing converse and white shorts with her Camp Half Blood T-shirt.

"Are you sure, even with everything that happened yesterday?" Jackson double checks, with a voice that gives away his trepidation.

"Frankly, I think we all could use a healthy distraction." The girl answers, before taking Raven's hand as if it was no more than a dog's leash and pulling her into the cabin.

 _Percy_

Percy had more pressing things on his mind than clothes and he only felt the tiniest twinge of regret for dumping the heap of problems that was Annabeth on Leila. He could only imagine how well that was going., but frankly, he was relieved that he didn't have to be watching her right now. It had only been a few hours and he was already exhausted. At the moment though, he didn't have to focus on watching his prisoner like a hawk, and there was only one thing on his mind; he had to have a chat with a goat.

…

"Thanks for leaving me there, by the way." Percy jabbed, stepping into the small clearing without concern. Juniper looked put out at the interruption of what was probably a very lovey-dovey conversation, since Grover was taking off right after the funerals, and the lovely couple would soon be separated, again. Either way, she just _humphed_ and stepped back, disappearing back into her tree to give them privacy.

"You know we were in the middle of something." Grover sighed, sounding exhausted, but that was how he always sounded lately so Percy wasn't too worried.

"Yes, your very passionate, sickening chats; you aren't missing all that much, I'm sure." Percy had no idea why Grover was practically engaged to Juniper. It wasn't that the Nymph wasn't nice and all that, but honestly, why anyone would tie themselves down at their age was a mystery for him.

"Fine, alright, what is it?" It was kind of a sad statement that the only times they talked now was when one or the other needed something but unfortunately, they were pretty busy.

"Who is she?" Percy asked, settling down on a log. This was undoubtedly going to be a long conversation. Grover sighed as if he had been both dreading and expecting this moment. He sat down himself, and it was almost comical, they way his hooves clicked as he crossed his legs.

"Her name is Annabeth Chase and she's as messed up as they come." Grover didn't even hesitate with his blunt words and something told Percy that Grover had been preparing for this conversation even before he knew it was coming. The part of him that was ADHD wanted to jump right in, asking a million questions, but he hurriedly tapped it down, he needed to let his friend tell the story at his own pace.

"You know about Luke, and how he and Thalia traveled together for a while, well there was another girl, who I never told you about, she was this tiny little daughter of Athena who was sharp as nails and tried to take Luke out with a hammer the first time they met." For some reason it wasn't so much of a struggle to picture that confrontation, even if the way Grover described it was much too wistful. "The rest of the story is the same, but Annabeth was there through it all, she looked at Luke and Thalia like they were the most perfect human beings that had ever existed and they considered themselves a little family."

"That's a messed up family." Percy chimed in, but at Grover's dry look, he figured he should probably shut up.

"You have no idea. They were all furious at their parents, Annabeth might've been the worse in that concern, but they agreed to come to camp with me. After everything went down with Thalia, Annabeth stayed here full time and you couldn't separate her from Luke without a crow bar. I've never seen anyone so upset at being claimed before in my life. She seemed to get even angrier after that, begged Chiron to let her out, but he refused. She told me once that she would do anything to get her mother to really acknowledge her, just once. It never happened." There was something in Grover's demeanor that Percy had never even seen before, it almost looked like guilt, and he couldn't even deal with his best friend carrying that weight for all these years, he wouldn't deal with it.

"So what, she's just an angry demigod?" It was a sad story, sure, but it wasn't one that Annabeth had a monopoly on. They didn't get a free pass, so why should she?

"You don't get it, she's the smartest person I've met: Malcolm couldn't even come close." Grover stressed, his hands twisted together in the nervous way he always adapted whenever he felt like he wasn't making his point.

"Malcolm, as in the kid who once constructed a scale model of the Parthenon from memory out of sugar packets?" He could tell Annabeth was smart, but could she really be that smart?

"Yup, she used to infuriate him by writing nearly impossible riddles on little pieces of paper and leaving them for him to find." Grover started to smile to himself at the memory, before he blinked and it faded.

"So she's a sadist too?" There was something both terrifying and comical about that thought, but it seemed as if it was just another piece of this brand new puzzle. He had never liked puzzles.

"Little bit yeah, but that was when she was really little, as she got older she got harder, half the time Luke and Chiron were the only people she would talk to. You'd find her and Luke sitting beneath the pine tree at weird hours of the night, and they'd refuse to say what they were talking about." Grover explained.

"And this raised zero red flags?" It was ridiculous, how had no one seen that coming?

"Chiron and Luke talked about it once, and when Chiron didn't seem worried, we all just kind of let it go, I mean you remember him, Luke could charm a harpy." and he did remember Luke's charm, it was easy to conjure the image of Luke's easy going demeanor. "One day, a month or two before the trip to Olympus your first year, she just disappeared. It wasn't that rare for the younger kids to take off without permission and try to go home when things got bad, but when we sent Satyrs out, we couldn't find her, not a trace. After a while, we just figured if she had outsmarted us, she could out smart the monsters. Some people watched Luke for a while after that, but he seemed just as confused as everybody else." Grover seemed lost in that world, a world that Percy hadn't been invited to, yet it seemed so simple to him.

"He snuck her out before the shoe would drop when he stole the lightning bolt." The statement fell out easily but it didn't stop Percy from quickly looking at Grover to make sure he hadn't been too blunt. Thankful, the satyr didn't look too bothered.

"We think so yeah, she was probably among the first of Kronos' troops when they started gathering."

"She was twelve?" That was hard to picture. From what he had seen in his visions of Luke, the other group was cut-throat. If it hadn't been for camp these past four years, he couldn't guarantee that he'd still be alive.

"Yeah." It seemed that Grover found it just as messed up as he did, and at least that was a minor comfort.

"That's terrible." He liked to pretend that the war had hardened him, but that was a lie, and both of them knew it. It made it easier to hear about how messed up Annabeth really was when he didn't have to pretend that it didn't phase him.

"No worse than you having to fight a Minotaur at twelve." Grover pointed out, and that was true. Grover also left out that he had to watch his mother be transported to the underworld, behead a demon, and then almost die by scorpion.

"But still, she's been actively fighting a war for the last four years, all the time, with no normality?" He asked, considering how he would've turned out if it had been all war, all the time. The pressure was bad enough as it was, if he hadn't had breaks, he probably would've broken down within the first year.

"Probably, yes." Grover nodded solemnly.

"No wonder she's messed up." He gave a half-hearted, dark chuckle that was more of a sigh than anything, and leaned back against a damp rock. It had rained earlier in the morning, and the damp ground showed it. The air was cold for August, but it seemed perfectly fitting.

"Listen, what you have to understand is that you had Rachel and me and all of those girls, as far as I know, Annabeth only had Luke." Grover stared at him imploringly, and he got the message, even if it made his skin prickle to consider any emotion other than hatred for this girl.

"So what are you telling me, I should pity her? I was never going to touch her." If this whole talk had been designed just to discourage Percy from taking advantage, than Grover really never knew him at all. He had gotten the lectures about respecting a girl's choice since he was eleven; just thinking about it made his mother's scolding face leap to the forefront of his thoughts.

"I didn't think you would, I just… keep it in mind." There seemed to be more that Grover wanted to say, but Percy wasn't really in the mood to wait around for him to say it. Frankly, this whole conversation was starting to get on his nerves.

"So since she had a hard childhood, like all of us did, we're supposed to ignore the fact that she tried to kill everyone here?" A demigod isn't a demigod without a difficult childhood, it never excused Percy, so why should it excuse this new girl. So she's messed up, everybody is, that doesn't mean she's not guilty. Just like he is.

"I'm not saying she's not a snake and a bitch, but cut her some slack." Grover seemed to get even more tired with this last statement, and it didn't even seem like he believed it would get him anywhere. He had given up, just like the rest of them.

"Look, with all due respect, she's reached the end of her slack as far as I'm concerned." He stood up, effectively ending the conversation and Grover just shrugged noncommittally. "I'll see you around." It was easy to lope off into the forest, far easier than it should've been to leave his best friend, but Grover didn't know what had happened, and that fact seemed to get more and more important as time went on.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

 _Raven_

She was hit with a very strong smell of perfume and hairspray the moment she got within three feet of the door. When she glanced over her shoulder to see Percy leaving, she barely resisted the urge to beg for him to take her with him. Reluctantly, she peered inside, observing the bright colors and gaudy movie posters. A few Aphrodite kids sat on bunk beds, idly flipping through magazines and doing their nails. The girl closest to Raven looked up first, and her heavily lined brown eyes widened drastically

"Who is this?" She looked at her as if she was a particularly interesting dress in a catalog, Raven didn't appreciate the sentiment. She wondered if she should answer herself, but as heads popped up all around the room, and a handful of others materialized from around corners and in closets, she forgot all about the question. It was like a runway show had just gotten out as beautiful people crawled out of the woodwork.

"Percy's 'gift' from the gods, he wants us to get her some stuff." The strawberry blond beside her answered. She crossed my arms over her chest, feeling awkward at both the introduction and the lecherous looks some of the campers were giving her.

"What are you?" A guy a few feet away from her asked, before he began circling her like some over- accessorized shark. His bleach blonde hair was carefully styled to look effortless, but the gel glistened in the light. She knew what natural blonde hair looked like after a teenage boy rolled out of bed, she had seen it enough on Luke. That thought brought her back to reality and she felt her irritation build as they studied her.

"Excuse me?" She snapped, but he didn't seem fazed.

"Have you been claimed yet?" He asked, and it was strange, she forgot how much your parent defined you here. No one asked that question in Kronos' troops. If someone told you, it was generally a secret, and no one offered up that information to strangers. She grit her teeth, knowing that she would have to answer the question eventually, and she doubted the eyebrow waxers would let it go. It wouldn't take very long for them to figure it out if they asked around.

"Yeah... I was in Cabin Six." She didn't want to say her mother's name, she almost did, but she couldn't force the word past her lips. She hadn't said it in years, other than when she would tell Luke how she wanted to destroy the goddess.

"Oooh, a brainac, it's a shame, your definitely pretty enough for Cabin Eight, but I guess it's just not meant to be." A petite brunette chimes in as she pulls her own hair into a messy bun at the top of her head.

"At least now you're not off limits." The blonde guy adds.

"If you think Percy's sharing this one, you're insane." The strawberry blond girl answered, and she crossed her arms; her bracelets jingled, but her expression didn't change even as her cabin mates gathered around them.

"You don't think his plate is already filled with the war?" Another boy, this one had curly brown hair like Grover's added. He was younger, barely fourteen if she had to guess, and he looked at the blonde guy as if he walked on water.

"The war is over, so he'll be celebrating plenty with her." The blonde bozo answered, he seemed about her age, maybe a year older. That's physical age though, mental age, if she had to guess he was still stuck somewhere before puberty.

"Do you always talk about people as if they're not in the room, or am I special?" She finally snapped, her shoulder didn't burn, so she took it as an indication Percy's rules weren't being broken here. He didn't answer but stepped closer to her and looked unconcerned as her tugged at the hem of her t-shirt.

"Is this Percy's shirt or do you normally dress in clothes a full size too big?" He asked, and she blushed slightly. Curves weren't an asset in Kronos' headquarters, not unless you were willing to use them to your advantage. Her clothes weren't designed to be figure flattering. She didn't need them to be, but that didn't mean she appreciated having it pointed out.

"It's my shirt." She finally admitted and batted his hand away. He gave her a lecherous look paired with a repulsive smirk.

"We're not here to give her a makeover, just some clothes, and some _necessities_." Strawberry's eyes twinkled at that, and Raven remember something else she had written in her notes. Aphrodite's children could be ruthless.

...

The girl ran her fingers through Raven's hair and pulled out the slipping elastic. Her bob of normally tight blonde curls hung limp around her face in testament to the length of time she had gone without a proper shower. When she looked in the mirror, she found the crowd pursing their lips at her reflection thoughtfully. There were too many of them crammed into the bathroom, no matter how large it was, and they all seemed determined to 'fix' some aspect of Raven's appearance.

"Why do mean people get hair naturally that color?" Someone tittered. Raven turned to glare at them, pushing away someone's hand just as he poked at her hip, blathering on about what pockets did to a woman's figure.

"Can I please just grab some clothes, and get out of here?" She asked, using the same voice she'd use when one of Luke's officers got huffy about taking orders from a girl. A dark haired boy with perfectly managed eyebrows and gelled up hair slipped in next to her, and answered for the horde.

"So you can go back to moping about, waiting for Percy to get back, I don't think so." As if he knew anything.

"I was not moping!" She hissed and gave him her patented glare, but he seemed unconcerned.

"Of course not." He sounded way too friendly as he replied, they weren't friends, and she didn't appreciate the sarcasm.

"I was protesting what you people are doing to me." It may have been petty but she wasn't dropping this line of the argument.

"Honestly, if it was me and Percy, there wouldn't be a whole lot I'd protest." The girl examining her cuticles cut in.

"Protest? Please I'd be begging. I'll be his reward whenever he wants." The perfectly manicured brown Q-tip added. No one reacted, except for the blond with way too much to say, who snickered. See, eleven year old brains do get stuck in seventeen year old bodies occasionally.

"Girl, you better give your Uncle Mark details, and lots of 'em." Q-tip continued, and despite how crass he was, and the fact that he was the enemy, in other circumstances she would probably really like Mark. Unfortunately, they were trapped in these lives.

"This is disgusting, I wouldn't touch Jackson with a ten-foot pole and rubber gloves." Her stomach flipped at the thought. It was bad enough she would be living with him until she managed to wiggle her way out of this situation. Thinking of being with him in any sort of intimate manner, even just holding his slimy, disgusting hand was a repulsive thought. She didn't get involved with sell outs, particularly not god-loving, mortal errand boy- sell outs, who prioritized getting in good with the Olympians over his own people.

"Pretend all you want, but you have to be dead not to want to jump that boy." Mark continued, his blue eyes positively alight with the possibilities. She was a little nauseated just looking at how enslaved these kids were to Jackson.

"Jump him and stab him to death maybe." She muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Strawberry asked and she looked at her with a challenge in her expression, Raven was not one to back down from a challenge.

"If I was jumping Jackson it wouldn't be for any reason other than to get rid of him." The room tensed, but she wasn't bothered. "That piece of traitorous sewage is the last person in Tartarus that I would ever sleep with." Most of the cabin was silent, looking varying degrees of intimidated and outraged. Only Blondie decided to speak up.

"I'm not sure you should be throwing stones, sweetheart, considering your little boyfriend has returned to being scattered bits in Tartarus." He sneered and she couldn't respond. Not without slicing him to a billion pieces herself. She had a feeling that might break some of Jackson's rules. "That's what I thought." He smirked, and when she didn't respond again, the rest of the beauty queens started back up.

"Now... you definitely need your eyebrows reshaped." A particularly vivacious one went right in for the kill before Raven could protect herself and laid down the hot wax. She sat silently as they waxed, plucked, and brushed her eyebrows. It hurt, and they buzzed around saying what ever came to mind, but she tried to make herself focus on being somewhere else. Someone else was brushing out her hair, which was snarled, and disgusting from the past few days. Being stabbed and poisoned tended to do unfortunate things to your appearance.

"She needs a shower," Someone declared, and the guys filed out of the room immediately. She briefly considered resisting, maybe going on some sort of shower-strike, punishing this unfair treatment by subjecting the world to her smell, but a hot shower sounded too good to resist and she sure as hell wasn't Ghandi. Two girls stayed behind, but turned away while she stripped and ducked behind the curtain.

"Can I ask you something?" A quiet voice asked. It sounded like one of the younger girls, who couldn't have been more than nine. She had looked absolutely horrified when Mark had implied Raven and Percy hooking up.

"Sure." Raven answered, dropping the acerbic front she had adopted for the rest of the cabin. It was for people like this that she had fought. Innocent children corrupted by the selfishness of the gods.

"Why are you here?" She got the feeling that the girl wasn't referring to the bathroom. She half expected Strawberry to jump in and stop Raven from answering, but she didn't.

"I fought against your side in the war, and the gods want to punish me." It sounded cold when she put it like that, but there was no way to explain without going into the whole miserable story of her life. If she even wanted to do that, the water would go cold before she got through age seven.

"Oh." The young girl answered, and the room was silent again. She opened up a bottle of shampoo that had a rich scent like the kinds that people paid hundreds of dollars for. What could it be made of, angels' tears? She washed her hair quickly, and rinsed down her skin.

"Can I get some clothes?" She requested, turning off the faucet. She was handed a towel first, and when she stepped out, they slipped out of the room while she pulled on the shorts and tank-top they had given her. She glanced at the door, contemplating if she could climb out the window of the pristine pink bathroom and make it out safely. The lovely trident on her shoulder throbbed as an answer.

She sighed, and pulled open the door as the rest of the Aphrodite cabin piled back in. Blondie was the first one, closely followed by Strawberry and the cute little munchkin.

"Better." He said with a hungry look at her legs. She knew she had long legs, and while she wasn't a lingerie model by any stretch, she did have some curves. She wanted to throw up, preferably on his Sperry's.

"Would you just knock it off?" The younger girl snapped, and Blondie finally shut up. Raven looked carefully at the younger girl. She had dark blonde hair, which was twisted into a long braid Raven couldn't even hope to pull off. Her face was either bare of makeup or it was only applied sparsely, because the girl's skin was flawless without the excessive decoration the other campers seemed to love. Raven liked her, she liked her a lot, and if this had been two months earlier she would've tried to recruit her.

"Go sit down." Strawberry requested, in a voice that made it clear it was an order. Raven sent her a glare, before slowly lowering herself into the chair, leaving her legs intentionally uncrossed, it was easier to kick that way. Strawberry and a few of the others buzzed around her, pushing her soaked hair out of her face. Blondie stood back, leaning with his arms crossed. She hated him, she really hated him with a fire she usually reserved for Jackson and the gods. She glared at him in the obnoxious vanity mirror. She was partly waiting for the lights framing it to start twinkling or humming show tunes. The pink walls and the massive white counter top helped the image.

Strawberry scooped her hands under her hair and pulled it all to the back. Munchkin immediately handed Strawberry a sleek silver hair dryer, and the rest of their siblings got to work. The plucking done, they proceeded to apply makeup, only to promptly remove it a moment later and put it in one of two piles.

"Can I see the navy eyeliner?" A brunette asked, before pulling down on her eyelashes. She flinched backwards, but then somebody smacked her leg, and the brunette ordered, "Stay still." After finally applying it to both eyes, she tilted her head and looked carefully at her unwilling captive's face in the mirror. She glared at her.

"Yes." She decided, before wiping off the liner with stinging wipes and adding the pencil to an ever growing pile of makeup products. Somehow, a packet of makeup wipes and a small bottle of clear liquid made it on to the pile. Raven pursed her lips at the clear unlabeled glass container, considering whether it was worth it to ask.

"What's that?" She tried not to sound suspicious, making an effort to keep her cheek bones still as a blonde girl with braided hair worked diligently. The last time she had moved she had received a very sharp pinch in retaliation.

"Hmm…oh, the perfume. It's designed by Mom. It has some special features, but most importantly, it smells nice." Just like Aphrodite to look at things only at face value. How the hell did these hooligans win the war?

"What does it do?" Raven pressed, she wasn't the type to let things go, especially sketchy things like magically altered perfumes.

"Nothing worrisome, it's just personalized, different people smell different things depending on who's smelling and who's wearing it." Strawberry answered, and she's clearly the ringleader, or at least who Percy assigned to be her temporary handler. This was going to get very tedious, very soon. Oh no wait, it already had.

"It changes based on what they want from you, so for example, when Percy smells it on you later, he'll smell copious amounts of s- fun times." Blondie snarled from the background, at least having the decency to alter the statement for the nine year old in the room. Munchkin still flinches, and Raven's stomach twists, rebelling against the rest of her.

"You're a pig, and if you think that I would ever let that monster put his hands on me without a knife to my throat you're insane." She stood up, letting her chair crash the ground behind her and turning to face the twisted little smirking punk in the corner. "The gods' personal minion on earth is that last person I want to sleep with. Don't you know what he's done?" She snarled, looking around the room with daggers in her eyes. The silence was deafening as they looked at each other blankly. They all had clearly fallen for the gods' brainwashing and worshiped their perfect general. "What? Now you have nothing to say!" She demanded, spitting the words out with fire. Some of the campers slipped out the door, going back to the main cabin, whispering to each other, Blondie was the first one out.

"You should probably go; I'll get your stuff." Strawberry mumbled, her take charge attitude failing in the face of real assertiveness. Raven sighed when she left, crossing her arms over her chest. The rest of the girls filed out with her, but Munchkin lingered nervously. Raven turned back to the mirror.

"It's like dealing with North Koreans." She muttered under her breath and quickly twisted her damp hair into a side braid. Apparently Munchkin caught enough to get her meaning.

"You know, he's not such a bad guy once you get to know him." The younger girl added, and Raven turned and looked at her, really looked. Her eyes were bright, but older than they should seem, and tiny scars darted her hands and legs. Munchkin had lived through a lot.

"Hmm." She mused, without really saying her mind, It was one thing to snap at a room full of teens, it's another to snap at one little girl.

"I'm Kirsten, by the way." She said, and Raven smiled, but walked out of the room. The Aphrodite kids were buzzing about, going back to their usual pursuits. She took note of the movie posters on the walls, and the photographs plastered everywhere there was room. These were people who focused on idols, rather than themselves, and that's why they would fail. Strawberry had her back to her, and she was just slipping the bottle of perfume into a big tote bag as Raven walked up behind her.

"Hey," She said dryly, not bothering to sound friendly, she was never a very good actress anyways. Strawberry spun, and struggled to hand the bag over to the other girl. Raven took it easily, apparently they didn't condition too well here either.

"I'm supposed to escort you back," The girl answered just as dryly, and Raven almost smiled to herself.

"Really? It's just across the courtyard." Logic was good, even if it was distorted, if people thought they were doing it right.

"No. I might not be an Athena kid, but I'm not stupid." Strawberry snapped, and Raven's respect for her multiplied. She must have made a decision between here and the bathroom, because she wasn't taking any of Raven's crap. She just nodded in reply and shouldered her bag. They were almost out the door when she heard a voice.

"Wait! Leila, what's that on her shoulder?" Raven spun, glaring at the room of busy campers, trying to find the voice, but she couldn't find the source. Cackling erupted from behind her, and she turned to see Blondie buckled over, clutching his sides.

"It's a trident!" He shouted, and his cabin mates erupted in whispers and pointing. Raven's hand flew to her collar bone, trying to cover the brand her braid and slipping camisole strap had revealed. Strawberry's hand latched onto her upper arm and dragged her out the door as the comments got louder and more vicious. It had been a long time since Raven had ever felt truly mortified, but she discovered it was an emotion that didn't lose its poignancy with time.


	6. Chapter 6

_Raven_

Raven became who she was because she could read people, and she could tell that her little strawberry friend, Leila, was about to burst. The moment they got out of hearing range of her cabin, Strawberry started in.

"You do realize acting like a witch here will get you killed, right?" She snarled, her over sharpened nails digging into Raven's arm like a warning. It was a pretty weak warning, especially when you knew monsters. She had been scratched by a Sphinx, a weak teenaged girl didn't even phase her.

"I'd like to see you try." Raven snapped, yanking her arm out of Strawberry's death grip. The shorter girl spun and glared with sharp anger. Apparently Raven had struck a cord, oh well.

"I could take you out so easily bookworm. How much actual battle experience do you even have?" She hated that sneer, it was one she knew quite well. She couldn't count the number of times some one thought she didn't have any experience, just because her strength was strategy, not combat. She got plenty of experience when she spent years on the road with only her knife. She got plenty of experience when she fought and trained with Titans. She got plenty of experience fighting the freaking war. She got plenty of experience navigating the labyrinth. But all of this would be lost on the ditz in front of her, so she kept it simple.

"Much more than you Strawberry Shortcake." Her saccharine smile seemed to tip Leila over the edge, and she almost thought the girl was going to go for her throat. She welcomed the small rush of adrenaline at the thought. But unfortunately, Strawberry settled herself, definitely not ready for the fight she would've gotten.

"You do realize you can't get out of this, right? You're stuck here Annabeth-" The tone she hated more than the scorn, made it's appearance in Leila then, she almost sounded pitying, and that was something that Raven couldn't stand for.

"Ra-ven!" Apparently she needed to say it slowly for the message to get across.

"Whatever, alright," Strawberry just shrugged her off, clearly not understanding the impact of ignoring someone's identity, "the war's over, you're the only one still fighting, and it might do you some good to just accept your losses and move on. Starting fresh probably wouldn't be a bad thing, and neither would making friends here." Just like an Aphrodite child, to make that kind of asinine suggestion. Is she going to burst into, "Why Can't We Be Friends?" next.

"I think you've inhaled a bit too much hairspray Ginger Barbie." The words were designed to cut, and she succeeded. Leila flinched, and Raven felt a little bit of happy satisfaction at the realization.

"Whatever, Poodle." Even that attempt at flinging a barb failed, Leila's heart clearly wasn't in it, and Raven could practically taste the victory on her tongue. They were standing facing each other on the porch, both with their arms crossed, when Jackson finally re-emerged, crossing the court yard.

"Are we good, Leila?" Even Raven had to be impressed with how quickly Leila pulled on her mask. She was all unruffled smiles by the time Jackson made it to the porch.

"Of course, she's all set. So go ahead and have fun." Her smirk was sickeningly smug, and Raven almost vomited just watching Leila walk away. Now she was stuck alone with the sea spawn, and just the thought of that fact made her start shaking. Fear wasn't a fun emotion, and she had a sick twist in her gut that told her that she would be experience that particular feeling quite often. If she didn't break first.

…

There was a moment of inherently awkward silence when Raven and Jackson stared each other down across the bedroom. There was something different in Jackson's expression and she couldn't place it, but she knew for sure that she didn't like it. He looked twisted, not like crazy, even though he was, but like he was getting twisted up in his own head. It made him very difficult to read. After a few minutes of hateful glaring, Jackson cleared his throat and announced he was going to take a shower.

The moment Jackson disappeared into the bathroom, she yanked open the zipper on Leila's floral printed duffle bag, and started digging through the contents. At the top, in a bulging black leather travel case, was the extensive amount of makeup they had tested on her face. Shoving that off to the side to never be seen again, she continued digging through the rest of the bag. They had given her a hairbrush, a bottle of shampoo, a tub of conditioner, a package of hair elastics, a toothbrush, and a tube of tooth paste. She paid little attention to the clothes and shoes as she dug out that perplexing bottle of perfume. Some things were too interesting to ignore for any length of time.

The bottle was glass, with a small nozzle covered by a circular cap cut to look like a cut gemstone. The liquid inside was perfectly clear. When she opened the bottle and took off the cap to smell it, it may as well have been water. She felt the distinctive itch in her finger tips, as she fought the desire to explore, to look for more knowledge. Her teachers had called her a sponge as she grew up, she always seemed to be searching to absorb more and more information. Unfortunately she hadn't grown out of that habit. Ignoring the danger of playing with enchanted gifts from the gods, she sprayed a little of the perfume on both wrists. If the lover goddess had given it to her children, it couldn't have been too dangerous. After giving it a moment to settle, she took a cautious sniff. Surprisingly, it smelled perfect. The first thing she noticed was how clean it came across, with notes of floral and citrus. When she took a deeper breath, a heavy floral scent came across smelling all at once rich, fresh, calming, and invigorating. When she took one last breath, all the previous scents didn't evaporate, but she did notice a final note of sweet honeydew.

She glanced at the bottle, only partially surprised to note that the liquid inside had transformed to a soft yellow color. Thinking carefully, she was pleased to note that she didn't feel any different. If anything, she was a little more clear headed. That definitely could not be a bad thing in her situation; she needed all the focus that she could muster. She glanced at the door to the bathroom, and when she was certain that the shower was still running, went to work for real.

 _Percy_

He wasn't quite sure what her plan was, but all he knew was that when he walked into his room, in his cabin, he found his lovely little prisoner riffling through his drawers. Literally.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" She tipped over three swim trophies in her haste to turn around, and he cringed as they smashed to the ground. He was amazed when she didn't blush or even lower her eyes; apparently psychopaths like her didn't feel guilt. No, instead she just quirked an eyebrow confrontationally.

"Don't go through my stuff, you know, in fact, don't touch anything without my permission." He felt the chill travel down his spine at the magic he knew was backing up his command. He wished he regretted manipulating her, but frankly he could only shove so much regret into himself. The rest was irrelevant.

"That won't be inconvenient or anything." She sneered, backing herself into a corner, literally, and sitting down without stopping her glare.

"Well, sorry but when a yappy little bitch is unruly, you have to tighten the leash." He snapped back.

"You, despicable bastard," She snarled, her hands clenching with the obvious desire to maim.

"Already heard that one sweet heart, now I have to go check something, so just stay there and don't make trouble until I get back." He spat in reply, ignoring her hateful glare.

"You're repulsive." He let the door slam closed behind him in response, not even hesitating before leaving her behind.

…

It probably should have surprised him more that his father arrived on the beach that afternoon.

He just needed time to think, and lots of it. He had just been in a war, he had just watched friends die, and now he was supposed to own a person. Yeah, that's not going to work very well. He's already messed up enough as it is. He hadn't even processed the fact that he was invulnerable, let alone everything that had gone down, especially with Luke. He just wanted to come to the beach so he didn't have to think, but naturally, his father was invading his space by lounging in his beach chair on the damp sand. He was hesitant as he first approached, not quite sure where they stood, since it was Percy's suggestion that got Poseidon's home destroyed. Thankfully, the god showed that there were no hard feelings when he materialized a similar chair and gestured for him to take it. He eyed it for a moment before slowly sitting down. Poseidon focused his eyes forward, barely looking at his son, but at the same time, the awkward tension pulsing through every muscle in his body made Percy aware that despite appearing relaxed and distracted, the god's focus was on him.

Poseidon looked weighted down, but at least there was a little warmth in his eyes that wasn't there a week ago. You would've thought went six rounds with an elephant, with greying hair, pale skin, and a smattering of wrinkles around his eyes, but there was hope and that's exactly what Percy needed to see, especially then, when the rest of his life was crumbling around him.

"Did you like your surprise?" The man had a wide, I-know-what-you-did kind-of, grin, and Percy felt like something had gotten lost in translation, did he not know that the surprise was a person or... "I mean, personally, blonde is not really my favorite but…"He might have been on the verge of vomiting profusely; talking with his father about his irrelevant preferences was not really at the top of his favorite things to do, no matter what his opinion on blondes was (he preferred brunettes), especially since Annabeth wasn't a girlfriend, she was his "prize." He would've preferred cash, what exactly was the going rate for blonde teenaged girls now a days, anyway?

"You mean the girl I'm supposed to babysit and convert away from wanting to kill us?" He regretted his tone immediately after the last words slipped out, but thankfully his father didn't take the bait. Maybe the god wasn't as oblivious as he sounded.

"So I take it you've been enjoying yourself?" The eyebrow waggle contradicted that brief hope, and the absolutely failure at fatherhood wasn't even surprising anymore. The person in front of him had no idea just how disgusting the implication was, also how awkward it was to try to explain why he didn't savor the idea of taking what he was given to a god who's hay-day was before slavery was made illegal.

"What? No, absolutely not, I wouldn't do that, I mean, not with her. Not that she's not, and I'm not, but I won't and she definitely won't, and oh gods help me. I'm not, I'm not that guy." Percy stammered and stuttered uncomfortably, and his face burned all the way back to his ears. There were very few things he could deny being, but this was definitely one of them. His father seemed unconvinced.

"Admirable choice, but her services are your reward Percy, don't forget that. The others on the council only require you to direct her to work beneficially towards rebuilding and paying her debt for her crimes." He looks out across the churning waves, a pensive expression on his face.

"So I'm her warden." Percy sighed, and slumped in his chair. Poseidon cleared his throat awkwardly, clearly unsure as to what to do with a angst ridden teenaged boy.

"In a way." Finally the god seemed to get that Percy was not happy about this, and reigned in his gleeful tone, replacing it with a much more reserved one.

"Greeeaaaaaat." He groaned, and let his head drop into his hands, the back of his neck tingled as he considered the vulnerability entailed in this position. It was strange how his reflexes hadn't faded in the slightest, even after the danger had passed. Four years didn't disappear easily, and neither did his discomfort with his father.

"It's more complicated than you believe." Because statements like that were quite comforting, and it was a great example of excellent parenting. "Ares and Aphrodite have a bit of a wager going, and you know that the arrangement was Aphrodite's idea, and Artemis isn't happy at all, of course there isn't much those two agree on…"

"Even better. " The sarcasm was almost a physical thing at this point. He could almost physically feel himself throwing it.

"You know, I remember this one girl. Now, she didn't know who I was at this point, and she might've been there to worship Hera, I'm still not sure about that, we didn't really talk much, and well that wasn't really the goal, …but the point I'm trying to make here Percy, is that you've earned the right to enjoy yourself." His father's expression was a little nauseating, and he seemed to forget that Percy's mother had been one of "those girls." He didn't need any of that imagery, thank you very much.

"Dad… just drop it." Percy felt his faced burn with embarrassment ;this was not how he imagined getting "The Talk" from his dad, he definitely wouldn't have guessed that his personal version of the talk would include a recommendation to "enjoy himself." He cleared his throat and tried desperately to change the subject.

"Why do you care about her in particular? I mean, there were hundreds of demigods of Kronos' side." He ran his hair through his hair, and Poseidon just nodded, his expression darkening as he remembered something. It was hard to believe that less than forty-eight hours ago, Luke was alive and Kronos was encroaching on Manhattan.

"Rehabilitation was her mother's idea, she's a child of Athena, you know." Poseidon gave Percy a look as if this would somehow affect something. "She's incredibly bright, and before Luke turned her, she was looking like she would be a great asset in the future. We don't want to lose that opportunity."

It should probably surprise him more that the gods were trying to rehabilitate a teenage girl to use her as a weapon. It should probably make him angry, or self righteous, or something, but what could he say, everything can become normal if you have to live with it for long enough.

AN: Hey everyone, I hope you're enjoying this story so far. I love writing it and I hope some people out there are enjoying it. I'm reopening my sneak peek offer. Everyone who reviews this story will get a sneak peek of the next chapter. Also I'd really appreciate it if you'd encourage others to take a peek if they're looking for a new fic to read.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

 _Percy_

He heard the footsteps before he bothered to turn around, but when he did, he saw Malcolm stepping on to the beach. Percy knew the expression even before Malcolm got within shouting range. His father glanced at him, winked, and disappeared with a soft "pop."

"It's almost time," Malcolm said in explanation, shaking out his disastrous blond hair.

"I'm coming." He said with a sigh, taking one more moment to stare out at the tumultuous waves; even the ocean looked sad today.

"She's been shouting." Malcolm said each word like it was a confession. Percy studied the older boy carefully, few things were more messed up than Percy's family, but Malcolm might win that particular battle.

"About anything in particular or is she just being her usual mid-exorcism self?" He might not be the most politically correct guy, and he kind of regretted it when Malcolm flinched, but Malcolm would surely be hearing a lot worse about his half-sister during the next couple weeks. It would do the guy good to toughen up.

"Above and beyond the expected expletives, something about cruel and unusual punishments." He explained, shrugging.

"When did she start shouting?" He asked, hoping that she had stopped.

"According to Leila, about five minutes after you left." Malcolm shrugged, and when Percy started walking towards the cabins, he followed, trailing after the dark haired boy. Percy heard the shouting a few minutes later.

"Are freaking getting off on this Jackson? You're a twist little freak! What do none of you idiots have a backbone? Do you just do whatever he tells you to? Ow! You're despicable, you're all despicable!" The shrieking echoed across the courtyard, but Percy just rolled his eyes before hurrying to his cabin. The moment the door opened, Annabeth shut up.

"What the hell is your problem?" He demands, looking at the lunatic in front of him. She looked insane, squirming around in her corner and digging her nails into the floor.

"I have to pee." Of all the things he expected to come out of her mouth, that wasn't one of them.

"What?" He asked incredulously, there was no way _that_ caused this chaos. She sighed, before looking at him pleadingly.

"Do I have permission to leave this lovely little corner so that I can go to the bathroom?" she bit her lip as if saying that had physically hurt her, and when he nodded apprehensively , she bounded to her feet and to the bathroom. He found himself standing in the middle of his own cabin, staring at the ceiling, half chuckling, half hyperventilating. It seemed that leaving her alone wasn't his best plan, so he supposed Annabeth was going to become a very reluctant mourner that afternoon.

* * *

There seemed to be an endless amount of shrouds being burned in the Pavilion. As Percy watched, the fabrics seemed to wither and tremble on their own in the licking flames. Small sparks flew off the soft cotton. He could feel bile building up in his throat, and he trembled with the will to not break down, not in front of everyone. As he walked among the mini funerals and his sobbing camp mates, his fighters looked up at him, a blend of grief and desperation in their expressions. He nodded, trying to appear consoling yet strong. He noticed that Beckendorf's shroud seemed to have the brightest flames, not that he'd expect anything less from his friend, in life or in death. He moved among the small throng until he found Silena, and wrapped his arm around the shaking girl's shoulders. They were supposed to stay together, they were supposed to be the couple that everyone strove to be, no matter what. He remembered the explosion with a knotted feeling in his gut, and squeezed Silena gently once more before scanning the space. Silena had chosen to wait until after the battle had ended before burning the shroud and he couldn't blame her, in a way it was easiest to contain all of the grief to one day.

His least favorite demigod was sitting off to the side by herself, and that was just fine with him, this was not about Annabeth Chase. A purple shroud caught his eye, and he noticed Dionysus standing with the boy he had kept out of the fighting.

His hands shook and he his legs trembled; it wasn't a conscious decision, but he found himself sitting beside Rachel Elizabeth Dare. The bright girl was shaking and her eyes looked stained red. She leaned into him and he immediately put his arm around her. He stayed there, feeling her tremble against him, as only the occasional sniffle broke through the quiet in the Pavilion. He lost himself staring at the shrouds as they withered and blackened in the flames. Time stretched and flowed, endless in grief. Every few moments he would scan the space, counting heads, keeping track of his people like he always had. He tried not to focus too hard on those that were missing, they were moving on to Elysium now, even if the casualties had been high, it had been worth it to save the world. Or at least, that was what he told him self while in the midst of it.

The sound of hooves on stone dragged Percy's attention away from the outer steps of the space. Chiron cleared his throat, and limped a little closer to the fires. Percy knew the centaur had lost more heroes than he could count, but it didn't do anything to diminish the tear tracks on the old teacher's face.

"We are here because of tragedy, and we are here to mourn those we have lost this summer. We have lost friends, allies, siblings, and family, and they will always live on in our hearts and in the memories of their noble sacrifice. Even now, they move to join the heroes of ancient Greece, or choose to reenter our world and begin again. Each sunrise, sunset, and every moment in between we owe to them, and we must honor them for the heroes that they were." He finished and quietly stepped closer to Beckendorf's fire just as the last strands disintegrated and evaporated up into the darkening sky. As Apollo and his chariot disappeared on the horizon, campers slowly started to trickle away in pairs and in small groups, no one daring to make a sound. Soon enough, Rachel slipped out from under his arm and went towards the cabins with a sharp nod. He stayed, staring into the fire long after the others had left. Slowly the numbness started to fade as the fire fizzled out. He found himself captivated by the way the wood blackened. He felt like he was burning along with it and something deep inside seemed to blacken too.

His head started to swirl with awful images, swords cutting through people when he didn't make it in time, monsters slashing campers, hunters falling, Tyson screaming, The Princess Andromeda exploding, Luke….

He sat up quickly, and cast a mere glance back at the fire before storming to where the filthy traitor still sat, looking bored. That infuriated him past the point of reason.

"This is your fault, every freaking shroud is on you. Even the ones you didn't lay hands on, you planned their death, you massacred them in your sick, twisted little hissy fit. _You_ killed them." He shouted, shattering the suffocating quiet. He didn't have time to think the words before they were pouring out of him like the nastiest poison. But the relief did nothing to temper his fury and it just built and built as Annabeth burst to her feet, her hands twitched as if she had been itching for this opportunity.

"They made the wrong choice, they betrayed us! They didn't have to die, they _chose_ to pick the gods over their friends, their family. It is not _my_ fault. It's yours and your gods." She spat back with equal fury. She was snarling in his face as he glowered down at her. The air thickened as they exploded towards a fight. All of their early arguments suddenly seemed petty, neither of them were holding back now.

"Were we supposed to just let Kronos destroy the whole world?" He sneered, shoving logic in the brainiac's face.

"We'd create something so much better! For all of us, where we could actually have a say in our lives and our futures." She spouted the propaganda as if she actually believed it, and it only made him angrier. She was part of the reason so many campers went to the other side, she was part of the reason that so many people died.

"There wouldn't be anyone left, you were going to kill us all!" He could picture vividly the aftermath of one of the fights on the bridge, the blood, the contorted bodies, the screaming…

"Unlike you, we don't slaughter innocent demigods," She lied, getting into his face as she made the accusation.

"You're deluded," He scoffed.

"Oh, really what about the Princess Andromeda, there were little kids on the ship you blew up Jackson," She looked at him as if she was simultaneously disgusted by him and mourning his soul, as if she hadn't sold hers long before he even thought to.

"That was a necessity, we did it right, we warned the ones we could, it wasn't our fault that they didn't leave when they should've." He argued, this was something they had planned, they did their absolute best, there was no other way to have gone about it. He and Beckendorf had planned that hit for weeks; they looked at it from every angle. It was a minimal loss of life.

"You're just like them, you know, able to reason out any number of deaths, who cares how many people you hurt as long its for the "greater good" right?" She spat.

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"Ever heard of Nico? His mom didn't have to die but she did, because of your gods. And Thalia's mom? She went crazy because of the gods playing games with her. Just like they play games with me and Grover and every other poor person that wanders into their five second attention span." She was starting to get really heated now, as if she had been waiting years to make those points, and the worst part was, he couldn't exactly debunk them. The realization took some of the wind out of his sails, and he found himself cooling down long enough to explain himself, even just a little bit.

"I don't pretend to approve of every decision they make. I disagree with how they treat us just as much as you do, but instead of trying to kill people, like you did, I rejected immortality." He hadn't said that out loud yet, and honestly, it felt like a mistake. He had done it so that he could move past the crap and forget the guilt, but instead he was being slammed with a constant stream of reminders. The accidental moral reasons were still satisfying though.

She obviously hadn't known that, and her startled expression revealed just how lost she was. It wasn't like an Athena kid to be out of loop and frankly to Percy it was pretty freakin' amusing to watch a blank expression replace Annabeth's smug pout. She didn't need to know that disagreeing with the gods was not his only motivation. Her shock had the backwards effect of rekindling his anger because he was right, and she hadn't known a single thing about it before she decided to fight him, and for that, she deserved to pay.

"What? Was that not in your file on me? You might've studied how I fight but you don't know me." He sneered, and she straightened her shoulders, readying for round two. She made sure her gaze was almost bored, picked him apart like a mildly interesting corpse. It pissed him off all over again.

"Sure I do. You have major daddy issues, trust everything Chiron says, have no friends outside of Grover, haven't left camp outside of a quest for years, worship your mother, have an intense hero complex, and you doubt the gods but you never had the courage to challenge them." Too many of her observations rang true and he was ready to snap at the accusations.

"I should've had the courage to fight them? I had the foresight to know that was idiotic. And I won." He snapped back, he thought that would've ended the argument, but she just bristled and plowed on.

"Is that all that matters to you? Who won not who was right?" She had that same pitying look on her face, and he found himself speaking without realizing it.

"What difference does it make?" There was no anger in his tone anymore, just exasperation, this wasn't satisfying anymore, he just wanted to give up.

"All the difference in the world! We were right and we won't take this lying down." Her fire hadn't faltered in the slightest, and she looked for all the world like she was going to keep fighting, but it was easy to shut her down.

"Look around, there is no "we" for you anymore. You're the only one that's left." He watched as she visibly deflated, withdrawing into herself as she processed that sobering reality. She crossed her arms and stared at the ground until he sighed and started walking off. She followed slowly behind him, scuffing her feet along the path as she did. For some reason, it wasn't as satisfying as he thought it would be to break her.

A/N: Hello lovely readers, I'd really like to hear your thoughts on this chapter. Who do you think is right? What is Silena doing here? How are you feeling about Rachel right about now? How do you think Malcolm and Raven will react to meeting up again? Do you think the name Raven reflects my dark-Annabeth?

I'm opening my sneak peek offer again for this chapter, so please review with your thoughts. The more reviews I get the faster I post the next chapter.

Teaser for the next chapter: Percy makes a discovery and Raven has a rough night.


	8. Chapter 8

_Percy_

Percy found himself starring at the brat in front of him with derision. He had no idea what to do with her, and as he stared, she seemed to pull herself back together. She was a gnawing pain in the back of his skull, and she either seemed to be glaring and passively making his life hell or yelling and aggressively making his life hell. At that moment, she was standing on his porch glaring at him with her arms crossed, and one eyebrow cocked.

"You're really an asshole, you know that, right?" She shattered the silence with little regard to the shards of it around her, and he had to wonder how often she had been cut by them.

"And you're a bitch, but that doesn't mean I'm going to call you out on it." This was almost boring, he thought as he brushed away a determined mosquito that was buzzing around his head.

"Just calling it how I see it, I didn't realize you were so sensitive, Seaweed Brain." She said with mock friendliness and he sneered at her.

"Someone really should've helped you pull that stick out of your ass at some point." He responded with the same fake concern.

"It's really quite the miracle that you made it through the last ten minutes without running home crying to your mommy, isn't it Jackson?"

"That's right, you don't know anything about parents, do you? Since both of yours hate you." He cast back, aiming for the spots he knew would hurt the most.

"I see your still deluded enough to think that anyone gives a damn about you, Jackson." She suggested and he smirked at the implication. This was one thing he had gotten good at faking.

He laughed and spread his arms out with glee, gesturing towards the quiet camp. "Of course they give a damn, I won them the war!" Never mind how little anyone cared about how much that cost him, Annabeth didn't need to know that.

"I'm still not sure I believe that." She raised an eyebrow and looked at him like he was a slightly moldy piece of steak. He couldn't even believe her stupidity at this point.

"Are you on drugs? Have you missed everything that happened today." He gestured at the camp, amazed that she still couldn't believe that he had won, not her.

"You are a puny _child_ , do you honestly expected me to believe for even a moment that you defeated a Titan and Typhoon?" He hated that implication more than most. He was definitely not a child, not anymore.

"Yes, because I did. I beat your precious boyfriend." He didn't intend to bring up Luke until he did and he felt himself freeze. She jumped on that sign of weakness without hesitation.

"Did you kill him?" She asked, staring at him with more concentration and sincerity than he had ever scene.

"No." The word passed through his lips easily, despite the way everything seemed to shut down as he said it. It was funny how far into the gray area such a simple answer was.

"Why should I blindly believe you?" He watched as she swallowed, never stopping to process the information.

"You shouldn't. Come on." He barked before stepping into his cabin.

…

The door opened, and she looked at the chaotic disaster zone that was Jackson's room. She half expected a harpy to pop out from under his pile of dirty laundry and say hello. She had a disgusting suspicion that she would be in charge of cleaning this sink hole of filth.

The duffle bag of doom loomed on a extra long single bed tucked away to the side of Jackson's obnoxious set up. She dreaded looking through it more thoroughly, but she dreaded staying in these disgusting clothes more. She ignored Jackson as she rummaged through excessive amounts of satin and lace and stretch denim and leather at the bottom of the bag. With a sigh, she tried to find something with slightly more coverage than the average ball of twine. Finally stumbling upon a long nightdress in a style that no one had actually worn to sleep in since _I Love Lucy_ aired, she tucked it under her arm and pointedly looked at the teenage 'hero' watching her intently.

"Permission to pee?" she snarked, earning just an eye roll, which she took as consent and moved into the bathroom.

…

Percy only had the few seconds of Annabeth being in the bathroom to gather his thoughts. He had recently become a glorified babysitter, except the child in question was a rage filled teenage girl. He was the only guy to be granted permission to be alone in a cabin with a non-sibling in all of the camp's history. This would be amazing, this would actually be a reward if Annabeth wasn't more likely to remove a piece of him than to reciprocate any of that kind of action.

He flinched as Annabeth shoved open the bathroom door, stomping out in a large pink tent masquerading as pajamas. She yanked her hair out of the elastic with much more force than necessary and fussed with it, displeased when nothing she did could cover the ornate ink gracing her shoulder. He'd admit, the Neanderthal part of him didn't particularly mind the idea of a girl wearing something that represented him on her skin. The only issue was it didn't exactly have the same affect when there was a distinct rapey undertone to the forced gesture.

"Want something Seaweed Brain?" she snapped, catching his gaze.

"No- it's just" that was when he saw it, a flash of gray among the gold rivulets. "Wait a second…" He ran to her, pushing away the front part of her hair to try and see below.

"Woah, woah, woah, we already had a chat about this touchy-feely stuff Jackson, back the hell off." She snapped, pushing at him fruitlessly. He didn't acknowledge her, not until he found he was looking for, a streak of gray, tucked under the rest of her hair, faded by time, but still distinctly there. He knew exactly what it was, even as his stomach rolled at the realization

"You held the sky."

...

That was not a secret she had prepared to lose so early in the game. Certainly not the first night. As usual, she knew more than he did, and what she knew was important, even if he didn't know it yet.

"Nice try, I had an edgy phase." She lied unflinchingly. It didn't work.

"Bullshit, you know it and I know it." He pushed aside a section of his own hair to reveal a very similar streak, faded to the exact same tone.

"Alright, what's your point?" Hopefully if she could get him to move on fast enough he'd forget about it.

"That winter, the winter after Thalia came back, at Mount Atlas, you held the sky." Unfortunately Jackson wasn't as dumb as he looked and even more regrettably, the boy clung to things like a stubborn five year old at the mall. "The girl that Artemis took the sky from, that was you wasn't it? The young maiden in distress?" Well that was downright offensive.

"I'm not in any way shape or form a "young maiden" and I sure as hell wasn't in distress. Luke and I took turns, holding it up so Atlas could work to kill you. Not our smartest plan but…" She shrugged, the things she had done for the cause were a little ridiculous. Unfortunately, as she spoke the light seemed to flicker on with Jackson.

"But you took it back" He said slowly as the realization dawned.

"Huh" She feigned innocence.

"When Zoe was fighting her father, there was a moment when I started to fall and the sky was going to slam down with me, but someone came up beside me and helped me lift it back up until Luke fell." He stared at her as if she just sprouted a second head, and as far as she was concerned, that would've been an improvement to the current situation.

"Probably Grover." She shrugged, fiddling with her bag and internally crossing her fingers.

"There was blonde hair." Jackson asserted, sounding more convinced by the second.

"Probably your imagination, or a goddess, Aphrodite's meddlesome that way." She tried, putting every ounce of persuasion she had into it. It wasn't as if it was an improbable statement.

"It was you." He stated as if it was a fact, which it was, but he didn't know that.

"Nope." She denied again.

"You were fourteen and you helped me." She glanced over her shoulder to see him grinning like a maniac, but the insane tended to look like that.

"Nope."She repeated, schooling her features into stone.

"You're a liar. Tell the truth." She tried to stop herself from blurting it out but her shoulder started to spasm with pain as her hands trembled. She waited as long as she could but finally had to fess up.

"Screw you," She ground out. "Fine alright, it was me, none of us were too keen on smashing the surface of the earth to a billion pieces either, and when you weren't up to the task, I lent a helping hand, so to speak." It was really that simple, it had nothing to do with Jackson, just survival.

"But when Luke fell…" Jackson continued to prod.

"Luke is a different circumstance." She answered honestly.

"That, I know." There was no response to that, and even if there was, she wasn't willing to give one, so she sighed, stomped over to her cot and turned her back to him.

…

By his estimates, it had to be close to two o'clock in the morning, closer to sunrise than sunset, but he couldn't sleep and as far as he could tell from the constant shifting he heard across the darkness, neither could his lovely charge. Eventually, after an aggressive bout of turning back and forth and pillow fluffing, Annabeth's voice broke the silence.

"Have many guests Jackson?" She sounded as exhausted as he felt, and maybe that's the reason neither her question nor his response was full of barbs.

"Not really, it's generally just me, I keep Tyson's bed ready for whenever he stays here." He shrugged before realizing that she couldn't see him, and then felt stupid, and then felt stupid for feeling stupid.

"Tyson?" She asked quietly.

"Hmm… yeah he's my half brother." He closed his eyes again and flipped over, breathing deeply before he just barely caught the edge of sleep.

"Is he just a summer camper?" She asked quizzically, dragging him away from the edge of sleep ever so kindly.

"No, he stays with my dad most of the time." He mumbled in response.

"Underwater?"

"In the forges."

"What?" She sounded shocked, but he didn't have the patience to be concerned.

"He's a Cyclops." Normally he was a little more delicate about explaining it but he was freakin' tired, okay?

"What!" There was heavy thud as Annabeth presumably fell out of bed. Her voice was panicky as she continued. "Your brother's a Cyclops, you want me to sleep in that monster's bed…" She seemed to be building up to full blown hysteria, and he did the only thing he knew how to make her calm down.

"Shut up! What is your problem?" The magic behind the order sent a chill down his spine, even as he stomach twisted. Annabeth didn't saying anything, but he could hear scuttling noises as she crawled across the floor. He was sitting straight up now, trying to discern her shape through the darkness. He felt a slight tug as one of the blankets piled at the end of his bed was yanked off. The scuttling moved to the corner, where Annabeth made a disgruntled noise before curling up in the small space.

"You okay over there? You can talk, you know." When she didn't answer, he took it as a yes. Frankly, she was quieter in the corner, and he didn't have the energy to deal with her break downs. Wardens weren't exactly expected to coddle prisoners, and falling asleep was something he could do.

A/N: Hello lovely readers, I hope you are enjoying this story, and I'd love to hear from you. Is there anything you'd like me to explore more? What do think Percy means when he says there's a "gray area"? Do you think Raven will let it go that easily? How do you think Percy will deal with Raven in the morning?

Just a little hint at the next chapter: Raven gets a visit from her favorite person ever (note the heavy sarcasm) and she makes an important decision.

As usual, anyone who reviews will get an extended sneak peek.


	9. Chapter 9

_Raven_

She would rather sleep on the floor than in a cyclops bed. She could deal with any number of monsters, except cyclops. That was her one line, and no one ever made her cross it. Enough people had traumatic childhoods that aversions like hers were respected and ignored. It was rare that a cyclops was loyal enough to be high enough to convene with her anyways. It was safer in her happy corner.

The measured pace of her breathing silenced the creaks of discomfort from her tired joints as she forced her body to relax. She could sleep with military precision, and as she counted her even breaths and numbed her thoughts, she wondered what other skills could help her survive here. A chill ran down the back of her neck at the thought as she tried to ignore the hard wooden floor beneath her. Eventually, she slipped into a restless sleep.

….

After so many years, and so much turmoil, Raven thought her first visit from a god, even in a dream, would end up being her mother, but of course it wasn't, oh no, she got the veritable Barbie doll of the Olympians.

"Hello my dear" Aphrodite's features were indiscernible, Raven couldn't seem to pinpoint the color of her hair, the shape of her face, or even a vague outline of her figure; all Raven could process was one thought, beauty. The beach around Aphrodite was easier to discern, pristine white sand, glittering like powdered sugar, while perfect aqua waters lapped at the shore. It was about as far from the beaches Raven knew as you could get.

Aphrodite herself sat perched on a large hunk of drift wood, equal parts welcoming and terrifying. Across a small pit of ashes was another chunk of drift wood, clearly meant for Raven. She crossed the sand, realizing that she was barefoot and in her pajamas as she did. The rough surface of the wood wasn't pleasant through her thin silk night gown but she maintained a poker face as she stared down the goddess of love.

"Many people say that falling in love is like falling in to a dream, with dreams like this, I can see the resemblance. Just think of the last time you fell into a dream, Annabeth, you woke up and your whole world had changed, marvelous, isn't it?" The goddess mused, entranced by her own thoughts. As far as Raven was concerned, love was a nightmare, an intrusion on her life, just like this dream.

"Quite." She said with about as much humor as a rattle snake. The goddess just laughed, and it was a tittering little thing, like a mouse, or a parakeet. "And it's Raven, by the way." She continued.

"So misguided…"Aphrodite blatantly disregarded the correction and grinned, baring pearly white teeth. The goddess's eyes lit up as if someone had just opened the first page of her favorite book. It seemed she got palpable joy out of getting a reaction out of the teen.

"Excuse me?" Her hands balled into fists, but where her nails should've dug into her palms, she felt nothing. It seemed as if she wouldn't be waking up from this dream of her own volition.

"As much as you may want it to, changing your hair and your name doesn't change who you are. Our pasts can't be discarded so easily. That's one thing you notice as a love goddess, so many broken lovers try moving on too quickly, it's tragic really." The diva seemed to get lost in her own thoughts again, as she drifted away in her own perilous ideas of romance.

"Why are you here?" Raven snapped, trying to get the goddess to make her point and release her so she might actually get some rest. Aphrodite finally seemed to turn her full attention to the girl in front of her, and gained some measure of focus.

"You're one of my favorites you know, quite the love story really." Aphrodite smiled as if being an Olympian's favorite was ever a good thing.

"I don't have a love story." Clearly this Olympian was on crack, and had confused Raven with someone else because you had to fall in love to have a love story. It's kind of a requirement.

"Hmmm, well it's not fully written yet, now is it? Did you like my perfume?" This, at least was a semi lucid question.

"It's smells fine, but what's the point if everyone else smell something different? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?" She voiced the question that had been on the tip of her tongue since she first sprayed the potion, a nerdy side of her without a filter had been flickering around in her consciousness all day. It seemed that being asleep killed her dignity. Aphrodite just laughed easily, as if Raven was a five year old asking stupidly simple questions.

"You brainiacs all think too literally. So focused on practicality and functions that you miss the beauty in it." She was insulted for multiple reasons, for being lumped into a box like that, and for Aphrodite assuming that she couldn't appreciate intricate concepts.

"I can appreciate the beauty in an invention, that's kind of the point of being an inventor, right?" She thought back to some of the diagrams stored away from the raids on Daedelus's workshop.

"You my dear, are beautifully dysfunctional."

"Excuse me?" That sounded like an insult.

"It's so lovely to weave you such an intricate love story," the comparison between her love life and a particularly interesting blanket did not go missed, "all the best stories are so equally tragic, it's part of the gift of love." This little nugget sounded like it came off the back of a Nicholas Spark's book, that was so far away from what Raven wanted from her life that it couldn't even exist in the same mental space. She scoffed.

"I really don't need any more tragedy, thanks though, buh-bye." Even though as far as she was concerned, that was the end of that conversation, Aphrodite plowed on without hesitation.

"Oh child, first you have to deal with the tragedy at hand. You haven't even considered his death have you?" Aphrodite laid her dainty hand on top of Raven's scarred one, and that was too striking for her to look at, so she closed her eyes for a moment to push back the sob fluttering in her throat. It seemed she couldn't run from this any longer.

"So he's really dead?" It was the first sentence that had passed her lips without venom in too long, and the words seemed to leave chills along her lips as they left the safety of her mind.

"Yes, Luke is in Elysium." The words were said gently, as if she expected Raven to crumple like an autumn leaf or better yet, fly away like a frantic bird. The facts still weren't clear though, nothing seemed to line up, not right, at least. Even if the goddess was hardly more reliable than Jackson, it felt too certain to not be the truth.

"How would you know? You aren't the goddess of death." This fact she could hold onto, she could do that with knowledge, she could do that with her memories, even if he couldn't anchor her anymore, even if he was… gone.

"I'm not, but a love as deep as yours…" The fool started, but Raven didn't let her finish, couldn't let her finish, not then.

"Luke and I weren't in love." That was something Raven knew, their friendship had been her rock, her center; love was too precarious, too fleeting, too foolish for them.

Aphrodite smiled easily, but it was a melancholy thing, heavy with the kiss of death.

"You were two souls that by all rights should've ended up completing each other, but your circumstances never seemed to line up just right: the love story that no one wants to have." The words rung true somewhere in the hollow gap in her chest, and she felt her lips moving and heard the words long before she thought to speak.

"I had a crush on him when I was a kid, and there was that one kiss… but he didn't love me." As much as she had wanted it at weak moments, dreamed of them riding off in to the sun set together, she knew that hadn't been the case, they were to win the war and then end up working together to fix the world, their ending would be more work than happily ever after; even if the idea of loving him was hypnotic.

"He loved you much deeper than most husbands love their wives on their wedding day, and he may have felt a glimmer of attraction at the very end, but he knew you two were never destined to be." It was just in the way of the gods, to convince you that perfection was in your grasp, and then snatch it away in a twist of fate. It should be a lie, and that fact seemed to corrode the last shred of her resolve, and she broke.

"But we should've been! He shouldn't be dead! It doesn't make any sense, we had a plan, he knew…" She repeated the same facts she had been using to keep herself calm for weeks, but they only drove her into a frenzy again.

"If it made any sense, people wouldn't write books about it, and I wouldn't exist, there's a reason no one prays to facts." Aphrodite smiles that same melancholy smile and stands to leave Raven. The demigod found herself sputtering in outrage demanding answers and explanations, but Aphrodite just winked at the girl, leaving her alone on the pristine beach.

And then she woke up.

A/N: Hello everybody, here's the newest installment. I really love this chapter and I hope you guys do too. Please drop me a review with your thoughts.

What do you think the real history is between Annabeth and Luke? Where else is Annabeth's love story going? How else will Aphrodite make Annabeth's life interesting? What do you think her perfume will smell like to our favorite male demigod?


	10. Chapter 10

_Percy_

Percy was having a very different dream. Other than his supremely awkward nap in the big house the day before, it had been the first time in much too long that he had gotten any sleep. So naturally his dreams were about as disconcerting and restless as they could get. It started with acid. Not the fun kind, but the kind that strips your flesh from your bones and pulls you to pieces as you slowly disintegrate while screaming in excruciating pain. He couldn't breathe and he finally knew what it would be like to drown. Just as he was about to pass out, from pain or under oxygenation or a mix of the two, an image started to break through the haze, one that was simultaneously familiar and terrifying.

Percy woke up to a body looming over him. He jolted up, shoving the creature away. There was a thud as his would be assailant hit the floor. He rolled out and over , pinning them to the ground. He didn't even need Riptide, it was too easy. That's when he noticed the dainty frame.

"What the hell, Annabeth?" He quickly backed off of her as she sat up, he could just make out her glare in the dim moonlight from his window.

"Where is it?" She snapped, making a little puffing noise as she blew her hair out of her face.

"Annabeth it's three o'clock in the morning." He was seriously wondering if she had a mental break during the middle of the night. He's not sure if causing a breakdown fit the bill for helping her reform but he might just take it. Hey, he caused an emotion other than blind fury in the hag, shouldn't that count for something?

"It's not Ann-" She started to complain in an exasperated tone, but quickly moved on, "you know what, it doesn't even matter, where's the shroud?" There was an urgency in her tone that was only matched by the panic at trying to sleep in Tyson's bed. Unfortunately, shrouds were ridiculously common in the last few days, and he had no freaking clue what she was talking about.

"Excuse me?" It wasn't as if she had a right to any of the shrouds, she was the reason they were dead, that didn't exactly qualify her to be the closest companion or recipient.

"Did you burn it? I swear I'll turn you into glue!" As impressive as that threat was, he was really getting angry now.

"Which shroud?" He finally snapped, done with her, and this conversation and pretty much everything.

"Luke's" She snapped back, her voice rising, and her eyes starting to glimmer. She might as well have punched him in the gut. He had tried not to think about Luke and how he died, he hadn't even considered the shroud, who would speak, who it would be given to. Other than Annabeth, it probably would've gone to him, despite their issues.

"I don't know, it hasn't been burned, Chiron probably has it." She stood up then, already looking towards the door. "You can ask him in the morning." She either didn't hear him, or didn't care, because she took off, flying out of his door, presumably to the big house. As far as he was concerned, she couldn't escape, and if she did anything too crazy, the harpies would catch her. It was way too early in the morning to care.

….

 _Raven_

Splotches of red had begun to show up on the clean wood of the Big House's door by the time Chiron answered it. Raven almost fell through the entryway when it was pulled open. The Centaur in front of her didn't seem surprised. In fact, he seemed bored. He folded his hands in front of his pensively, much more focused on his hands then the girl in front of him.

"I want Luke's shroud." She gasped. His lack of response was frustrating and not because she expected him to care about her, because he didn't. He definitely didn't, but because she had a goal, and it wasn't this.

"Why do you feel like you have a claim to it?" He asked coolly, still not looking up at her. There was no leftover sleep in his expression or posture, and she wondered briefly how long it had been since the centaur actually slept.

"I am the _only_ person in the world with a right to that shroud and we both know it." Her voice shook against her will, and she dug her nails into her palms to head them off. Talking to her old mentor physically hurt, her chest contracted with a mixture of longing and anger, and since she was on this new route of admitting the shit she didn't want to think about to herself, she could even acknowledge the feeling of regret hanging over her like a wet rag.

"Why the sudden interest?" He asked watching her without any traces of compassion. She almost felt like this was a job interview.

"I have a right to it." She repeated, she was still dazed, and in her rush, it was all she could think of.

"Why would you think there is a shroud?" He asked curiously. He was tried much too hard for the "wise old teacher" image, honestly the centaur was a joke.

"There's a shroud for every demigod." She snapped, getting frustrated at the circular nature of the conversation.

"Not for the ones we lost before death or fell out of grace." He said with same philosophical lies he always regurgitated. He left everything up to his interpretation so he could make you feel like he was just following rules.

"Luke was a hero." Her hands shook slightly as she forced herself to say his name, to face the fact that Luke would always be in the past tense now and there was nothing she could do, nothing except stop these traitors from ruining his legacy.

"That I know better than anyone." The centaur said with his all-knowing finality, and quietly stepped backwards farther into the house.

"So give me the shroud." She pushed just a little bit more, feeling him start to bend. He nodded silently before turning away from her and moving to a shelf in the living room. He carefully slid out the folded orange cotton fabric and placed it in her outstretched arms.

"I suggest you wait before doing anything with it. You'd be surprised at how different things may seem in the future." With that parting bit of advice, Chiron retreated quietly.

She stepped back, looking down at the fabric and forcing herself to take a few deep breaths. She glanced at the blood splatted on the door curiously, and then realized her hands were throbbing due to the punishment she had inflicted on them, splitting her skin on the wood. Yes, she'd wait, she'd wait until she got out of this hell, and found the others. Then she'd give Luke the honor he deserved.

…

 _Percy_

Percy's second round of sleep was anything but peaceful. Thankfully enough, he wasn't burning. At least not literally. Oh no, he just had to deal with the very real possibility of bursting into flames while at the mercy of Thalia Grace's death glare.

"Um, hi?" He asked curiously. He didn't normally dream of Thalia, and as far as he knew, she wasn't a god, or dead. She stood in the midst of a dark fog, glaring at him with her arms crossed, and hip out. She angrily tapped her signature combat boot on the ground in front of him as if she was pissed he had kept her waiting.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" She growled, stalking towards him with murder in her eyes.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, you're going to have to get much more specific than that." He stayed cool, despite the nearly overwhelming desire to curl up into a ball and pretend not to exist. He didn't care about the Titans, Thalia definitely took home the award for most likely to make others literally vomit from fear.

"Annabeth Chase?" She hissed, her voice low and dangerous. Thankfully, this was something he had an excuse for, so he just shrugged.

"Yeah, it's a thing, I had no idea." This answer didn't seem to satisfy her at all. She took a deep breath, set her shoulders and opened her mouth to launch into what would no doubt be an unending lists of objections and warnings.

"Well-" He knew that tone better than he should and he knew he had to shut that down very quickly. It seemed that a distraction might be his best and only option.

"Wait, before you start yelling at me because I doubt I'll be able to speak once you start, how, exactly, are you here? Neither of us are dead or gods so you shouldn't be able to be here right now." He hoped she wasn't dead, because that would be very inconvenient.

"There are some benefits to this gig, but that is not the point. Why didn't you tell me that you took Annabeth as your prize?" He thought she would sound a lot more appalled than hurt, but she honestly looked like she was simply disappointed in him.

"I didn't take anyone, okay? It's just another thing they've dropped into my lap." The stress leaked into his tone, but it didn't really matter with Thalia, if anyone understood that frustration, it was the lightning queen. He was very done with having to explain this to everyone though.

"Artemis is pissed." She sighed, shaking out her black fringe. "You should know that there is a very real possibility that she will recruit her as soon as she can." Something in Percy bristled at the implication, that he was somehow incapable. Even though this particular duty sucked, that didn't mean that he wasn't going to do it, and do a hell of a good job too.

"And Artemis can take her the minute we de-brainwash her, but for now, she needs someone to keep an eye on her. I wouldn't trust her with a bow anywhere near any other human beings." He cringed at the idea of the witch rampaging through the country, firing arrows at everything that moved. There was a heavy pause as Thalia processed and figured out what to say next.

"So, how is she?" She couldn't look at him when she asked the question, and for a moment she saw a flicker of vulnerability that he hadn't seen from her in a long time.

"She's very different Thalia." He tried to say it as gently as possible, but Thalia still clenched her hands into fists and stared down at her shoes.

"You didn't know her before, she was always very mature." She sounded so sure of these facts, as if it was the only thing she could afford to focus on. Annabeth seemed to do the same thing. It seemed he would have to be a little harsher to convince her of the truth.

"You know how I know she's different? It's all she talks about. She even goes by a different name now."He found himself speaking quieter, even if there was no way anyone could hear him. There was a feeling of conspiracy when talking about Annabeth this way.

"Really?" Thalia finally looked up, surprise covering what was obviously pain.

"She calls herself Raven and she's not the little girl that you and Grover ran around with." That was still a strange idea to him, he couldn't imagine how the four of them had gotten along for any length of time.

"So he told you?" Thalia sounded surprised, and it made him wonder for a moment if anyone really knew about how close Thalia and Annabeth had been.

"Yeah, she's killed people Thalia." It seemed like a point that was too important for her to ignore.

"Not directly." Thalia had a little too much hope in that tone.

"That's comforting." He rolled his eyes at her, Thalia might technically be older, but she was taking a very naive approach. Splitting hairs wasn't exactly useful in this scenario.

"Both of us have killed people Percy." She reminded him, as if _he_ was the one that was off.

"No innocents." That had been a rule he had followed religiously, and one he was still clinging to now.

"Nobody's innocent Percy, all of us are way too messed up for that. She made mistakes but Luke was the one making decisions. And Kronos was manipulating him. There are a lot of levels to it Percy."

"We all make our own choices. We chose right." The were very few issues that were black and white to him, and this was one of them. A little nagging voice in the back of his mind whispered about Luke, and the end, but he shoved that down quickly.

"We both had our moments of doubt about that. I'm sure they thought they were making the right choice too." He didn't know when Thalia became the queen of perfect understanding and forgiveness but he wasn't a fan.

"Whatever." The "Mother Teresa" at the end of his scoff was heavily implied.

"Speaking of choices, do I need to call your mom?" She said, all saint-like traces gone as she stared him down.

"WHAT?" He balked, why in the name of hell would Thalia Grace need to call his mother.

"To remind you how to properly treat a girl?" There was a very pointed expression that accompanied her tone and he started to get more and more offended at the repeated implication that his hormones ruled his decision making skills.

"I'm not a rapist." He felt like that was not a phrase he should have to rely on all the time, but it was quickly becoming one of his go-to's.

"I know, but you should be aware. I don't care what she's calling herself nowadays, if you hurt her, you will answer to me." The threat didn't seem like it was a "just in case."

"I don't think that you need to worry about that. She can handle herself and she will." He could only imagine what Annabeth would do if he made a move, something told him it would be much more significant than just a simple "no." He'd likely lose favorable parts of his anatomy.

"With no consequences?" Thalia tilted her head and raised an eyebrow, issuing the challenge like a question.

"Absolutely none. I'm really getting irritated with everyone implying that they need to set all these rules to guarantee that I'm not a despicable human being. I'm a good person. I've proven that over and over again. Why does that credibility go out the window with this girl?" He groaned and ran his hands through his hair. Everyone seemed to think he was completely at the mercy of his primal urges.

"Because our world is messed up as it. We're just trying to make sure that you don't forget your roots." Thalia sighed, as if he was already spiraling off the edge in a Justin Bieber like collapse.

"Trust me, I remember, it's not like I can forget." He slumped a little, he could only imagine how nice that would be, to forget everything, have a fresh start.

"Good, because we're going to be dropping in soon." She smiled a little, as if this was a good thing rather than a massive disruption.

"How soon?" Everything always went crazy whenever the hunters came by, and something told him that this time would be no exception.

"Who knows, Artemis's idea of time is a little warped."

"Well then, we'll just keep an eye out." He sighed, nothing like the impending threat of a generally resentful goddess to keep him on his toes.

"Sounds like a plan." Thalia sighed, and the dream seemed to fade as the even the fog disappeared into black.

 _Raven_

When she walked into the cabin, the door slammed loudly behind her. But it's not like she really cared. Luckily enough for Jackson, he seemed to be a heavy sleepier, because he just grumbled and continued to make grumbling noises into his pillow. She wouldn't have pegged him for a sleep talker, but the world is full of many surprises.

She glanced at the little corner she had been fitfully sleeping in before and her back twitched at the thought. So sleep was out of the question. She glanced outside again, noticing the way the sky was lightening slightly. She guessed it was as good a time as any to start the day.

She needed to remind herself who she was and the best way to do it was going for a run. She pulled on her trusty sneakers, yanked on a pair of the more modest shorts from Cabin Eight, and took off. She wasn't stupid, that's for sure, and she definitely didn't want to have the charm on her shoulder flip out for thinking she's trying to escape, so she didn't head for the hill, instead she jogged towards the woods.

Generally, going into the woods alone was the equivalent of a death sentence, and an eight year old Annabeth would have had an emotional breakdown at the thought but she had spent the last five years surrounded by monsters. She knew there were much scarier things than what lived in the trees.

Her shoulder didn't react as she jogged through the paths, making her way using winding animal trails and camper made-paths, so as far as she was concerned, she was in the clear. Still, the rhythmic sprint of running was a great high. Her legs ached beautifully with exertion and her body thrummed one senseless note in perfect harmony. She steadily pounded her way through the dirt, stepping over tree roots and dodging rocks. Before, running had been just a part of her obsession to be ready for anything, but now it was purely about not thinking. Raven knew that of course, but it didn't make it any less satisfying. Unfortunately, a girl could only run so long before she had to stop and let the world catch up.

The trees broke and she bounded into the real world. The lava wall was just in front of her, and something pulled at the deepest part of her gut. She remembered sitting at the top of that wall with Luke for the first time, his hushed words promising something better, a world untouched by the gods and their poisonous influence. He said he had waited for her to be ready so that they could go, but they had to leave the next morning. She remembered waking up at two in the morning, grabbing her backpack and slipping out the door. She remember having to remind herself not to look back as she came to the top of Thalia's hill.

Memories sucked because they smacked her in the face out of no where, and then there was no way out, she was just stuck there, thinking, even when she would have killed not to. Of course, it would have been easier for her if a walking, talking memory hadn't chosen that moment to materialize and ambush her.

"Annabeth?" He called out quietly as he approached her. She tensed, feeling herself rocket back to lying half asleep in Cabin Six, hearing him call for her. He used to sleep right below her, and sometimes they'd stay up all night whispering to each other. He was everything that a brother should've been, except he picked the wrong side.

"What do you want Malcolm?" She flinched with him when her cold tone registered. It had been too long and at this point, it just sucked.

"Where have you been all this time?" Desperation dripped from his tone, and she almost wanted to scream at him. How could he be so naïve? It wasn't as if she had ever tried to hide the side she picked. She fought on the bridge, how could he never have seen her?

"Where do you think?" She snapped coarsely, rolling her shoulders and trying to ignore the way his eyes went to the tattoo on her shoulder.

"So it was true then, what they've all been saying, you really were with him." She wasn't sure if Malcolm meant Luke or Kronos, but either was true, sometimes both. She nodded, determined to not shrink away from her choices. They were what was right and if someone disagreed with her, it was either their own ignorance or the gods' persuasion. Malcolm stared at her for a moment, his own slate gray eyes seeming unshakable whiles hers had always seemed tumultuous. She envied him for that. He cleared his throat and seemed to decide something. His eyes burned as he caught her eye.

"I thought you were dead, you know." He snapped. She couldn't look at his stony expression and stared down at his feet for a moment.

"I'm not a little girl, Malcolm. I made the right choice." For some reason the more times she kept saying that, the more confusing it was getting.

"Really you're sure about these choices?" He sounded skeptical, as if he had any right to question anything.

"I've already made them, now I'm just following through with them." She crossed her arms over her chest, something about the way he was looking at her made he feel vulnerable. Whatever he said, it was clear he didn't really believe she could be the enemy, no matter how true it was. He was still acting as if he had found a long lost sister and not encountered a prisoner of war. That was one thing Luke didn't mess up, they weren't kids, they were soldiers, and they thought like soldiers.

"You might be certain of these choices, but I'm still going to watch out for you," Malcolm was clearly living in his deluded fantasy but that could only benefit her in the long run. Maybe it was better for Jackson's disciples to live in their distant little bubble.

They stood silently for a moment before Malcolm started walking back towards the rest of camp and Raven followed hesitantly.

"So, I guess camp has changed some since the last time you we're here." She looked out at the strawberry fields, the beaches, the cabins, Thalia's hill, but also at the ever changing cast of characters, there were lots of faces missing. Some of whom she knew had come to her side, and some of whom she knew had died in the fighting over the last few days. She turned back towards Malcolm and shrugged.

"Some things have changed," As if on cue, she spotted a beautiful brunette frolicking out of the Aphrodite cabin. She hadn't been there when Raven had been being groomed, and something told her that wasn't a happy coincidence. "But others are exactly the same." Oh yes, Raven needed to have a chat with Silena Beauregard.

A/N: Hey guys, this is a long one and I'm actually pretty proud of it. Please hit me up a review with your thoughts. What do you like about this? What do you hate about it? What do you think Silena is doing? Do you think Raven and Malcolm will be able to rebuild their friendship?


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

 _Percy_

Percy stretched and turned in his bed, shoving his face back into his pillow. The heat of the day had crept in during the early morning like some kind of sadistic wake up call, and it appeared to be here to stay. Percy had no desire to confront life, especially his life, so he squeezed his eyes shut with all his might. Slowly those stupid rays of sunshine carelessly pried open his eyelids and he had no choice but stumble out of bed. He almost tripped over the pile of blankets on the floor and some colorful words slipped out in ancient Greek. He knew he hadn't left those there…

He groaned aloud when he remembered his guest who had taken off during the middle of the night. He had vaguely heard her come back at some point earlier in the morning but didn't have the patience to deal with it. As far as he was concerned, as long as she wasn't bursting off the property or killing people, he was making progress. Essentially that's about ten steps up from where Annabeth originally was; so he's as far as he's concerned, he's a very successful rehabilitator.

He rolled out of bed with a groan and curiously sniffed at his t-shirt. He hadn't been wearing it for that long, just three days, but it smelled atrocious. He flung it off carelessly, chucking it into the pile in the opposite corner of the room. He looked briefly in the mirror over his dresser before freezing. He could just barely spot the full length mirror across the room and he saw something he hadn't expected. He stumbled backwards, trying to get closer while still being able to see. Right in the center of his back was a massive owl, and not a cutesy one either; it had massive wings outstretched to where they brushed the bottoms of his shoulder blades. The bird was in mid screech, and its talons were in mid strike. He swallowed nervously as he ran his fingers over the newly inked skin. He had no memory of getting it, hell he hadn't even noticed. It seemed like Annabeth wasn't the only one with a forced tattoo, and that was something that definitely needed to stay under wraps, it wasn't exactly helpful to his image, or his control.

He hurriedly yanked a t-shirt over his head, carefully stopping himself from staring at the marred skin. No one could know about this. It just wasn't an option. He scanned the room in a rush, as if someone could possibly be hanging around a corner just waiting to reveal how messed up he was. He needed to get it together.

He found himself looking in his mirror for a long time, wondering when he got so old, and when those dark circles showed up, and when he got so exhausted. He couldn't remember.

He was standing like that when a coarse voice called in from the door way.

"Done preening yet Jackson?" The snarky voice called out.

"Look Clarisse, I know you haven't looked in the mirror in ten years but that doesn't mean the rest of us break them too." He sneered back at her. Even though he and Clarisse were on better terms than they had been a few years ago, their conversations were still sharp and occasionally nasty.

"You're such a child, and Chiron wants to see you and your skank for your assignments sometime before breakfast." She sighed, quickly getting bored, mostly because he always won, but she kept her natural bitchiness at full force.

"Jeez Clarisse, take it down a notch, you've never even seen her." He sighed, skank was exceedingly harsh of a label and the term "Jackson's skank" wasn't exactly helpful to the situation at hand.

"Sure I have, I was around when she and Luke left, she was young but we all saw how she had him wrapped around her finger, I know she was the one who convinced him to leave." Percy paused for a moment, wondering if it was true. He hadn't heard that version from Grover or Chiron, but that didn't mean it wasn't reality; he wouldn't put anything past Annabeth. It was definitely food for thought, but at the moment, he just need to get these rumors minimized quickly and efficiently.

"Just cool it with the "skank" alright, this isn't easy for anyone, but she's not going anywhere." His conversation with Thalia had made him realize that he had to get used to having Annabeth around and find a way to make it work.

"Wow Jackson, crumbling so quickly? I thought it would be at least a week before you got soft. Do you need me to handle her? I bet I could get her to feel remorse quite quickly." The absolute insanity in Clarisse's eyes was a bit concerning, but she was an excellent fighter and he had relied on the madness more than once in the thick of it.

"Just go, and try to be less of a psychopath for like five minutes, will you?" He dismissed her casually, and could sense her rolling her eyes at the back of his head as her headed into his bathroom.

"Fine Jackson, but don't forget you have a snake at your heels." She called casually as she closed the door behind her.

"I won't." He answered, too quietly for her to hear as he looked at his reflection again. He wondered if it was as obvious to everyone else as it was to him, how destroyed he was.

...

 _Raven_

"Where were you?" Jackson snapped the moment she walked in the door. Luckily Raven didn't give a shit about his concerned father act, especially considering he was neither of the two. She breezed by him with little concern about her bedraggled appearance or his protests.

"Went on a run. Now, if you don't mind I'm going to go hop in the shower, stay the hell out of the bathroom." She called over her shoulder. A shower sounded like heaven right then, especially since she would be in easy reach of razors. It never hurt too know that she had a weapon on hand.

"Do it later, we have to go see Chiron." He grumbled something else under his breath and grabbed her arm to pull her out the door. She shook him off; she didn't need anyone else to lead her around.

…

"Wait a minute, okay." He called just as she reached the door. There were still little flecks of her blood on the wood but she could barely feel the sting on her hands. She was very used to ignoring minor aches and pains.

"What?" She growled. She had very little patience left for this buffoon. She needed to get out as soon as possible. Her shoulder twitched slightly but she focused on minimizing the movement.

"I just want to make this clear. I know you've heard it from everybody else and this doesn't change anything. I still hate your guts." He started dramatically, fidgeting slightly since he had the maturity and self-esteem of a twelve year old.

"Spit it out." She snapped, tapping her foot. She needed to be doing something right now or she would implode.

"I won't touch you." He said as if it was some major declaration.

"What?" The word fell from her lips without a thought and she found herself lost again, which had happened more in the last twenty four hours than in her whole life beforehand.

"If I ever touch you inappropriately you have my permission to claw my eyes out." He seemed uncomfortable at the declaration, but sure of himself at the same time. She saw it for a moment, that innocent, naive chivalry and decency. For half a second she saw why everyone talked about him as if he was the good hearted hero. Her shoulder tingled slightly as if the tattoo was agreeing with his statement. It was a strange sensation, closer to the feeling you get when your hand has just started to fall asleep than anything really pleasant.

"Good to know." There was a heavy moment where both of them waited for the other to speak. This was the most sincere that they had ever been to each other and it left them both on edge. "I appreciate the gesture, but I still despise you, Jackson." She reminded him and herself. That was all it took for that brief flicker good to fizzle out and he was back to the arrogant ass he always had been.

"Please, I give it a week." He scoffed, all bravado and arrogance. He smirked as if he knew something that she didn't.

"Excuse me?" She growled, she didn't know what it was exactly he was implying, but she didn't like any presumptions he could possibly make about her.

"Annabeth, Percy, please come in so we can begin." Chiron called down to them suddenly from the porch and they both looked at each other briefly before filing in.

…

The meeting was awkward to say the very least. She felt like common practice probably shouldn't have been to stick war criminals on fluffy love seats but it was a very efficient way of ensuring that she couldn't stand up and make a break for it with any degree of speed. Jackson lounged comfortably in the arm chair beside her, looking decidedly comfortable in the space. It figured that the golden boy spent all of his time basking in his glory.

Jackson noticed her staring and glared at Raven for a moment, challenging her to look away. She didn't. Just like the animal kingdom, the first one to break eye contact was always the subordinate one. Jackson with his animalistic pea brain must have sensed it as well because he held her gaze with the same level of intensity. The air crackled with tension and it seemed to thicken as if it were a syrup.

"He-hem" Chiron cleared his throat with all the delicacy of a horse, which wasn't too far off from reality. "You're both aware what the purpose of having you here is, but you will not be a burden Annabeth, you will pull your weight. I'm expecting you to teach a class in order to help pay off your debt to society." The centaur gave her a stern look, as if she was supposed to feel guilty. She didn't, not even for a moment. She smiled back at him, her eyes tightening into her raging bitch expression.

"I'd love to teach a class, I can tell you right now what the subject would be- how the gods couldn't care less if we live or die." She spoke with a saccharine tone. Despite her panic this morning, she was still strong and he walls were never going to get any weaker.

"I had much more of an artisitic goal in mind." The centaur countered, his face showing a lack of amusement.

"Weaponry and sword fighting it is." She smirked, if he gave her a weapon she would be out of here so fast.

"Beginners painting." He continued as if she hadn't spoken. Her amusement flagged when she saw that he was actually serious.

"Are you insane?" She snapped. She was a strategist, she had a brain, and she wasn't going to be dumbed down to teaching some children how to pronounce "palette."

"I've heard it can be very therapeutic and some of our younger campers have requested a class for their level. You will be teaching it." She looked back and forth desperately between Jackson and Chiron, hoping someone would budge. She supposed that she could resist and refuse to even show up, but Jackson would just invoke her shoulder's spell, not to mention, she couldn't imagine what the alternatives were to this job. This might have been demeaning, but at least she could keep her mind occupied. Anything would be better than being trapped with Jackson all day.

"Fine, I'll do it." She sneered at the both of them but Chiron seemed satisfied.

…

The pair walked out of the Big House in silence. Neither was willing to let their guard down, even for a little while. Jackson cleared his throat and peered at her out of the corner of his eye as if he was assessing an unwieldy horse.

"Don't worry, it's Leila's class, I'm sure she'll help you pick up the basics." His words might have sounded kind to the casual observer but Raven could make out his sarcasm clear as a bell.

"I know how to paint Jackson." She sneered. She didn't have any patience for him anymore, but at the same time, there was some kind of comfort in the fact that she could always rely on him to be an asshole. Everyone needs something to rely on. She supposed she could rely on him being a dink.

"I meant on how to not terrify children." He sneered back at her. He seemed to be embracing her humiliation with gusto.

"Children like me just fine." She argued back and it was true. She had spent plenty of time around children when she was taking care of Hunter. She wondered for a minute how her favorite toddler was doing, and felt a little nauseous at the realization that she might not get to see him for a really long time.

"Don't worry, they'll learn to hate you soon enough." He smirked as if he might be kidding, but his green eyes were as hard as emeralds. She glared back for a moment until she realized where he was leading her.

"The dining hall, really Jackson?" Was he absolutely brain dead? She hadn't heard a worse idea in years.

"Well we had to skip dinner last night because you were being a brat, and I'm hungry." He stated matter a-factly, and the way he didn't even bother to look if she was complying was a smack in the face.

"You do realize that everyone up there hates me correct?" She wondered if he had actually forgotten the fact that she was a prisoner of war. Shouldn't they be delivering food to her cell?

"I'm well aware." He said coolly. Apparently they had moved past fiery hatred and were going for callous disdain. She could appreciate it.

"What the hell happened to that flicker of chivalry from earlier?" She hissed. The asshole had finally shown a smidge of decency with his allowance earlier, and now he was sending her to the wolves, unarmed no less.

"I'm not a rapist, that doesn't mean I care about your comfort, Annabeth." He snapped, and that seemed to be the boundaries he had set for himself. He could still embrace his cruel twisted nature and be able to look in the mirror to do his hair. She didn't exactly have a good response, so she focused on what she could argue.

"Raven." She corrected coolly.

"You're still harping on that?" He looked back at her incredulously.

"Yes." There were some things that she couldn't give up on and this was a battle she had already decided she would win.

They finally had walked far enough for the Dining Pavilion to be in view and Raven felt a little bit sick to her stomach. Every fiber of her being told her to not walk into this den of lions. The odds were definitely not in her favor the moment she surrounded herself with a pack of campers.

"Come on," He said, irritation seeping into his tone. She saw his refusal to budge in his face and squared her shoulders. She supposed that breakfast might be worth a little risk.

…

 _Percy_

Grover was already sitting at Percy's usual table when Percy finally succeeded in herding Annabeth into the Dining Pavilion. As he guided her towards the table the space slowly fell into silence as the room took in the girl. He scanned his campers, assessing their faces, many of which he knew just as well as his own. Most had looks of hatred, looking as if they might slaughter the girl at that very moment. Others looked apprehensive, as if she may slaughter them all at any given moment. Very few didn't react, and an even smaller amount seemed to not know what was happening, those were the best in a way. It was hard to imagine the camp's gossip channels failing to hit every camper.

Percy sat down beside his friend and met the other boy's jittery expression with a steely one of his own. The other boy cleared his throat before looking across the table with a little bit of awe and quite a bit of fear. He had to remember to keep Grover as far away from Annabeth as possible.

"So how are you?" The satyr blurted the question out and Percy peered at him in disbelief. Annabeth on the other hand just looked bored and angry, but that just seemed to be her face.

"Just peachy." She sneered and it made her face wrinkle in weird ways. For an "esteemed soldier," Annabeth didn't seem to look very healthy. There were deep bags under her eyes and her skin seemed unnaturally pale. He hadn't recognized her from that night on the mountain because her hair was lighter then, even though it was mid-summer and should've gotten paler, it was now a few shades darker. He wondered for a moment how much time she was forced to spend inside preparing a strategy for what would ultimately be her own destruction.

"You remember how this works right?" Grover tried again eagerly, he had gained so much confidence in the past couple months, and this girl had succeeded in destroying it in two days.

"Yup." She popped the 'p' so she could drag out the last syllable long enough to roll her eyes. She really was such a bitch.

"Can you try to be civil to other people or is that just too difficult for you?" He snapped, she might be a little brat but he didn't have the patience for her cruelty with Grover.

"Civility implies civilians." Yup, and there was that militaristic brainwashing peeking through. It was good to know that the reason so many of Kronos' troops had no moral compass was because he had beaten it out of them.

"No one is fighting you Annabeth. We can all be friends here. This could be a good opportunity for you to start over." Grover switched tactics drastically, his features softening as he put his hand on her arm. She stiffened and her face was painted with uncertainty. It seemed that Grover had discovered the way to get through to her- pretending like he cared about her.

"He's right Annabeth, we all make mistakes and you need to try to move on from yours." Percy chimed in; apparently he should've kept his mouth shut because his words yank Annabeth out of her momentary trance.

"Can you stop talking to me like that? You're both acting as if you're my parents." She snapped, brushing Grover's hand off of her arm and glaring alternately at the two of them. It seemed as if he needed to back off from the direct approach for a little while.

"Hmm… speaking of parents, do they know where you are?" He asked carefully, trying not to wig her out. Thalia mentioning his mom last night had reminded him of the crucial fact that even hags had parents.

"No." She tensed and he realized that he may have found a sore spot. "Why do you care?" She averted her eyes, staring down at the empty plate in front of her. He caught Grover's eye, who looked apprehensive. He knew he had to tread very carefully here if he wanted to make actually progress. She might be a murderer but this was still his duty.

"I don't know, um, I know my mom freaks out when I'm gone for a long time." He shared honestly, he could just picture Sally's face when he told her that he had decided to stay at camp year round.

"How cute, a mama's boy!" Annabeth laughed cruelly, wrecking any façade of compassion,

"You can be a harpy all you want, I just need to know; should your parents know where you are?" He clenched his hands, it was so difficult to be decent around this girl.

"Nope." She popped the final syllable again and cocked an eyebrow to challenge him.

"Fine." He sighed, it wasn't even nine yet and he was exhausted just from being around her.

Campers started to file up to the fire as their plates filled. Percy lifted his own plate by habit and started to walk forward before he remembered to watch out for his terrible charge. She was stubbornly sitting down with her arms crossed. She had flipped her plate over so there was no place for the wood nymphs to put the food.

"Not hungry?" He asked, it wasn't like he really cared but he couldn't exactly have her passing out at inconvenient moments.

"I'm not sacrificing anything and your nymphs seem to know that I don't like them." So it wasn't about the food, it was about the sacrifice. Too bad for her. That part of the meal was not optional.

"I don't think the nymphs know that." Grover contributed helpfully.

"Maybe they're just sensing my nausea from being in your presence." She tilted her head and directed her sarcastic curled sneer at the satyr.

"Just ask for some food, scrape a piece off and move on. You could use some amnesty from the gods right now." Percy sighed, he could feel the pressure building up in the back of his neck from stress.

"Did you think SAT word was going to impress me Jackson?" She laughed, the tone sounding more like a jeer than anything else. The sound echoed in a brief lull of the cacophony of the pavilion.

"Is there a problem Percy?" Clarisse called across the Pavilion, the girl had the most finely tuned radar for a fight of anyone he'd ever met. There were twits at his schools who prized themselves on being the first to the scene whenever anything happened but they didn't have anything on Clarisse.

"It's fine." He called out. He didn't need the rest of camp swooping in to fight his battles, it didn't look good. Grover seemed to crumble with frustration.

"I'm not going to burn any of my food for your precious gods and that pisses Jackson off." Annabeth announced, standing up so that she could aim her glare at every person in the space. He had to give it to her, she had certainly mastered the shock factor.

"Who do you think you are?" A voice snarled from one of the tables, but Percy couldn't catch who. He supposed it didn't matter, this soon after the war and the funerals, no one had the patience for this kind of disrespect.

"My name's Raven and I'm the head strategist under the Titan Army." She announced, actually puffing up with pride. A chorus of harsh laughter greeted her proclamation.

"Ha good one, that army doesn't exist anymore, and frankly, you're just as irrelevant." Clarisse snarled, staring down the blond girl with the same intensity that she took on anything and everything.

"What's actually _very_ relevant is how I tricked your father when I was _twelve_ into to doing my bidding. _I_ was the one who knew that Ares and his children have been hit in the head so many times that they barely know their own names." Annabeth held Clarisse's glare and even stepped closer to the other girl. Clarisse's hands were itching for a weapon and he knew that at least one of her siblings had to be carrying. Annabeth would get slaughtered if she went up against Clarisse unarmed.

"Woah, let's just take it down a notch, Annabeth shut the hell up. Clarisse, back off okay? I'm handling it." There were grumbles among the crowd that had been eagerly watching for a fight to break out. Unfortunately, leading didn't always mean being well liked. "Come on" He barked, dragging Annabeth with him towards the cabins.

"Where are you going Jackson, I thought you said that we needed to eat?" She taunted, her voice sing-songy as she allowed herself to be dragged.

"We'll eat when you stop being a brat, I've gone longer without food and honestly don't really care about your well being all that much." She muttered something under her breath, but he didn't catch it. It was probably for the best anyways.

"Come on, I'm dropping you off at the art center and then I have to catch up with someone." He sighed, he really wished that there was some way to make this easier, but there wasn't.

"Got a date Jackson? How exactly will you tell your girlfriend that you own a teenage girl?" She challenged, smiling as if she was being helpful but her eyes were just as malicious as always.

"Stop insinuating shit that you know isn't true. You're acting like a child." He snapped, Annabeth huffed, but seemed to accept that he was right. Within moments they were standing outside of the Arts and Crafts center. He could hear Leila puttering around inside and felt a twinge of sympathy pain for the poor girl. "Try to not be an incredible pain today all right? Just do what Leila says." He sighed and gestured for her to go in. She did, loudly letting the screen door slam shut behind her. Maybe it was shitty of him to leave poor Leila with his burden but there was only so much that he could take in a day.

…

He and Nico had a productive chat, the younger boy was making headway with his designs for his new cabin; he had even worked out where he would get the needed labor. He seemed like he was definitely in a much better place than he had been in years previous, but there was always an anxiety about him, as if he might take off at any moment. He never knew what to expect with the other boy. They at least had made headway toward becoming friends recently and he was determined to make sure the poor kid had some interactions outside of ghosts. He sighed as he left the group of cabins, heading towards Annabeth and Leila to grab them for lunch. It was almost like having a little kid. He supposed he'd have to train all of those bad habits out of her. It couldn't be that difficult.

…

He heard the crying first, and then he saw the outpouring of a group of seven year olds from the long wooden cabin. That wasn't a good sign. Then he saw the sniffling and the teary eyes. One girl was sobbing considerably harder than the others. He crouched down beside her so that they were eye level.

"Sweety, what happened?" He asked quietly.

"Miss Raven (sniff) said (sniff) that my dad (sniff) forgets about (sniff) me and (sniff) wouldn't care (sniff) if I died. " Then she broke down sobbing hysterically and got enveloped by hugs from the other kids. He figured they were better equipped to handle that problem. He looked up and straightened cautiously. To his shock, Annabeth was standing in the doorway smirking.

"What? I just told them the truth." She chimed innocently, batting her eyelashes to prove the point.

A/N: Hey everyone, so this chapter is a monster and there's a lot of stuff happening all at once. This is going to be a fairly condensed fic as far as the time line of the plot goes so that's what it seems to be moving kind of slowly. I have a lot to talk about happening in a single day. I really appreciated your reviews from the past chapter so I worked extra hard to get this one out for you soon. The next chapter might take a little longer, but I'll try my hardest for you guys. Please leave me a little love by reviewing. Did you expect Raven to be that cruel? Who do you think would have won the fight between Raven and Clarisse? What do you think of Percy's tattoo? What do you think the significance of it is? Send me your thoughts, good or bad.


	12. Chapter 12

_Raven_

Raven sat in the hallway outside the meeting room with her arms crossed over her chest. She was not a child, and she shouldn't have to be stuck waiting out in the hallway like a brat in time out. It wasn't as if she even did anything wrong. So what if she made one of the seven year olds face the truth, she wouldn't have done it if Strawberry Shortcake hadn't been such a bitch. The girl had spent the whole first half of the class patronizing her and then she wanted Raven to help some of the new arrivals understand the history behind famous artwork. Raven just answered their questions with much more detail than Strawberry was expecting. While she pouted, Jackson stuck his head out and appraised her carefully; she cocked an eyebrow and gave a very sarcastic thumbs up.

"Just… Don't leave." Her brand tingled slightly in acknowledgement of the command and she turned to stare down the hallway instead of making eye contact with her glorified babysitter. The door creaked to a close and then clicked shut. Raven peeked over her shoulder just in time to see the door swing back open a fraction of an inch. The conversation from inside trickled out in to the hallway and a Chesire grin spread across Raven's mouth as she slid closer.

"…worrying your friends." The Centaur was using his respectable father-figure tone, and Raven was this close to jumping into the vats of lava just to end the nauseating hypocrisy. A traitorous part of her heard that tone and just- just wanted to make him proud. She hated him for it. So many demigods lacked connections with one or both parents and his playing on those issues was despicable. Tricking vulnerable kids into trusting him by pretending he cared about them, she could hardly imagine anything more despicable.

"There's nothing to worry about Chiron." Jackson was one of those assholes that never had to pretend they weren't assholes; she suspected that was the reason he was such a pathetic liar.

"Son, I know you're still dealing with it, and you should take your time to process it, but talking to someone doesn't make you weak." Of course, this was just another piece of the old man's horse crap, but nothing could surprise her coming from the leader of the mindless Kool Aid drinkers. If her General had to go crying to someone about every stupid problem, he never would have made it without that trait being beat out of him.

"There's nothing to talk about." Again, it was a poorly executed lie, but she still felt a misplaced sense of pride that at least her adversary understood that chats about feelings were about as ineffective as employing children of Aphrodite in battle.

"What happened, Percy?" There was stifling silence and no one seemed to breathe in the space of a moment; Raven slowly started to wonder what the mysterious event they were referring to could be. Could perfect Jackson have done something wrong? "You need to tell someone," Percy started to say something but Chiron stopped him quickly. "I'm aware that the Olympians know, but you need someone you can rely on consistently, and as much as you and your father have bonded over the last few years, he can't be that person to you." Jackson's bonded with the Behemoth of a beach bum? No wonder he's the Olympian's golden boy, he's the only demigod they bother to care about.

"It doesn't matter alright? He lost, we won, and we moved on." She couldn't understand why everyone kept insinuating that this war was actually over. Typhon must have succumbed of course, and Kronos' formation must have been delayed, but there had to be people left fighting. This was bigger than just one battle, this was years, lives, and they were finally taking a stand, fighting for themselves, each other. They couldn't all have lost.

"You and I both know it isn't that simple." The horse seemed to have a better grasp on the situation but his grave tone tickled up the back of Raven's neck and ferociously tried to get her attention. Chiron didn't sound concerned about left over rebels, he sounded destroyed, like _they_ had lost something.

"It has to be that simple; he was hosting Kronos, that's all that matters." Raven's empty stomach made a valiant effort to expel whatever was floating around in there, and this conversation suddenly took on a much bigger meaning. She crawled as close as she could get to the door without being seen and listened as closely as she could. If Luke, if he hadn't, she knew, and the plan, and…

"He was your friend first." Chiron seemed to be choosing his words very carefully, and her hands started shaking. That very first summer…

"He was never my friend." She almost cheered when she heard Jackson denied the lie. They were enemies, completely. Luke was everything good; he was a hero. Jackson was evidence of everything wrong with this train wreck.

"Luke was a camper Percy, people cared about him, he just" That was a lie, such a lie, the people who really cared about him came with him, these people can't do this, they can't spread these lies about him. She can't let them, she wouldn't. The door crashed open with a jarring bang before she even realized she had done it, and Jackson's face was the first thing she saw. He was surprised, naturally, and still a little vulnerable from the conversation she had interrupted, but there was grief in his eyes, and even more importantly, guilt.

"What did you do?" She demanded, her voice cracking as she shouted. She could remember moving but she was suddenly in his face, searching for something. Some answer to the guilt flickering behind his eyes.

"Annabeth." Chiron murmured quietly, but she couldn't be bothered to think about anything other than the boy in front of her and the boy that she would never see again.

"Did you kill him?" She asked, feeling a cold numbness spreading from her chest as she waited for the answer. She felt her fingers twitch at her sides, itching to do something. Jackson seemed to be crumbling in front of her. He just kept shaking his head but couldn't seem to say anything. He was pale and terrified, on the verge of blowing chunks.

"Annabeth, stop." The centaur tried again, but she ignored him with the same easy callousness. There was no one else now, just her and Jackson.

"Look me and the eye and tell me that you didn't murder him in cold blood." She ordered, and the words seem to pop out without any permission from her. Icy cold fury pulsed through her veins and she felt herself tremble as she waited for an answer. She needed revenge, but first she had to know, had to know for sure what had happened.

Jackson didn't break eye contact, but looked at her pleadingly, seeming years younger, as if she could every pity him. Something in her gut told her that all of the signs were already there, but she had to hear it from him. She had to know for certain how the most important person in her life died.

"Annabeth! Come with me." The centaur growled, anger seeping into his tone. His hand on her arm was finally enough to jolt her out of the confrontation. She spun to the centaur and directed her fury at him for just a moment.

"I don't have to listen to you." She snarled, turning her attention back to the shaken teen, but even the moment of removal from the tension gave him enough time to recover a fraction of his strength.

"Go." He choked out, looking at the centaur with more relief than she had ever seen. Her shoulder started to throb as she tried to hold her ground, but with a growl, she stormed out of the room once the pain started to border on excruciating.

…

 _Percy_

The minute the door closed he lowered himself down to the floor. It was hard to breathe and the room seemed to be spinning too quickly. He was surrounded by flashes of color and everything quickly started to go sideways. Everything that he blocked was rushing back in. He could feel the acid climbing across his skin, and it seemed like everything was rushing, too quickly for him to choke in a breath. He needed to stop, he needed to get himself together, but he couldn't. It was too hard.

Overwhelming guilt pressed in on him, heavier than all of Olympus, heavier than the sky. He felt as if his joints were creaking, about to collapse in on him. There wasn't enough air in the room, and blood was rushing to his ears. Black pressed in along the edges of his vision, and suddenly, there was nothing.

 _Raven_

"How dare you?" She snarled, infuriated. Chiron didn't react, keeping his face stoically calm. She wouldn't put up with that. "You may have been my teacher when I was eight, but that doesn't give you the right to control me. You're a brain washer and a bastard." She hissed, spitting out each word. She had never been so frustrated; she had been just about to get Jackson to break before the maniac had ruined her opportunity. She couldn't take this not knowing.

"You've always had a habit for projecting your anger on to others, I was merely stopping you from causing more damage than you really want to." He said with the quiet certainty of the insane.

"I don't need you looking out for me." And it was true, she had been on her own for years, she didn't need his arrogance.

"I disagree." He said calmly.

"You just wanted to maintain your golden boy's reputation. Wouldn't want anyone discovering he's a murderer." It felt like a good word to say aloud, too ridiculous, too extravagant to be a reality. She couldn't know a murder victim, this wasn't TV, murder made it much less real than killer.

"You shouldn't talk about what you don't understand." The old man advised. She hated him, hated him so much. The only adult she had ever really trusted was the same person who had tried to brainwash her, who had sided with her parents. The disdain written across his feature was painful to see directed at her.

"If anyone would tell me what was going on, I could speak with authority." She argued back, letting herself feel the anger rather than the pain, she was good at that. The centaur just shook his head and changed the subject.

"You won't be allowed to leave camp until Percy and I decide you have been fully reformed. Would you like to spend more time here? The less trouble you cause, the faster you can move on from your mistakes." He reminded her coolly. It was strange, the difference between how he used to talk to her and how he did now, but she guess that happens when a con-man realizes their mark knows they're running a con.

"I don't need to be reformed. I was right. You may not know anything about loyalty, but I won't change sides just because I've been captured." She resolved, glaring back into her former teacher's cool gaze. As long as she remembered who she was, it was easy to keep herself separated from her nostalgia.

"The war is over Annabeth, you have to learn to accept that." He said more gently, looking more disappointed than angry. He still acted as if he cared about her. The liar.

"It won't be over until Olympus is smashed to pieces and rebuilt in real glory." She found the words coming out of her mouth without any permission from her. It had been something she had said so often that the rhythm of the words would get stuck in her head and make it difficult to sleep.

"You're wrong, but I suppose you'll learn that on your own after a while." He sighed. "For now, I've decided to place you somewhere new. You will be assisting your siblings in the creation of our new cabins, Malcolm will collect you in an hour." He glanced out the window, clearly having better things to do than making her life hell.

"No. "She crossed her arms over her chest. Working with Malcolm and the Athenabots wasn't an option, she may have been an architect but that was only supposed to be when she remade Olympus, not made it stronger.

"This isn't a choice, this is your penance." He glanced back out the window, surveying his kingdom like the psycho dictator that he was.

"I did nothing wrong." She spat. She was confident in her choices, and she wouldn't let anyone convince her they were mistakes.

"You planned the deaths of my campers, of your friends. You don't think there is something inherently wrong about that? You don't feel at all guilty for what you've done?" She stared at the ground, refusing to defend her actions any farther. It didn't matter what this man thought of her, she was so much more than his opinion of her, no matter how much it ached to hear what he thought of her. Those were just the buried ruminants of someone else, not who she truly was. A hesitant throat clearing from behind her drew her attention, and she noticed Jackson, a little less pale, but not in great shape. He seemed shaken.

"Don't bring it up again." He ordered, his stony mask told her he was hiding something, and she desperately needed to know what. The ink on her shoulder tingled with pins and needles to alert her to the necessity of following the order, and she ground her teeth silently at the realization that she would have to try a lot harder to find the truth. Jackson knew something, even if he didn't kill him, he knew how Luke died, and she would find out, even if she had to go around him.

…

They arrived back at Percy's cabin in silence, neither willing to be the weaker one by breaking it. There was the telltale feeling of discomfort as she walked into his space, the kind of awkward that only came after a truth was revealed that no one was quite ready to deal with. She needed some space to think, to process, to plan, and it looked like Jackson wouldn't be leaving any time soon. She cleared her throat awkwardly before gesturing to the bathroom and hiding in the shower. With the water running, she didn't hear him leave.

…

 _Percy_

"What's up RED?" Percy called out, Rachel didn't bother to see who her visitor was, but merely focused on the rug beneath her. As far as living in a cave went, she didn't have it too bad. The tapestry covering the door was a gift, sent from Apollo to celebrate her new status as oracle, and worked well as insulation. The rugs beneath her were soft and durable, and the mini labyrinth of caves allowed her plenty of privacy.

"Stop calling me that." She said more out of habit than irritation. The nickname had existed since he first put together that her initials matched her flaming scarlet hair, and she could never convince him to let it go. It may have been slightly juvenile but he still enjoyed pushing her buttons. It was nice to feel like a normal teenager for a minute of two.

There wasn't even a need for words anymore, he just sat down on the ground beside her and laid his head on her shoulder, slumping into her smaller frame. The redhead didn't look up from the dancing flames, but still gently brushed his hair out of his eyes. It had gotten longer in the past few months, but still managed to never lay exactly flat.

"I miss my mom." He said quietly. It made him feel weak to say it out loud, but he knew he could trust her. She didn't even react, she just made a soft noise in the back of her throat in agreement. Sally had become a second mother to her over the past year or so. She would welcome anyone who needed it, but she especially took to the other girl, allowing herself to become a confidant about the teen's gift of sight. They bonded over the mist, but Percy suspected a mutual love for embarrassing him was what really cemented the friendship.

"How long has it been?" She asked; he tensed slightly. He didn't like thinking about that either.

"Before Nico and I went back to get permission? My birthday party." He sighed, and the sound was so downtrodden that it made something in him ache. He was still reeling from his earlier attack, and maybe still a little dizzy, but not even Rachel could know about that. It would bring up too many questions, too many things he didn't have an answer for.

"That was a year ago." She told him quietly, but nothing in her tone suggested that this was new information for either of them. She understood that he had always relied on his mom, that she had been his rock for so long, he felt unmoored if he spent long stretches of time out of contact with her. When he started staying at camp full time, so that he could prepare himself for the war, it had been nearly impossible with the shattering amounts of homesickness he dealt with.

"I know." He sighed, and closed his eyes. He let himself slump farther into her, confident she could support part of the weight. "I thought when the war was over I could go back and stay with her during the school year, but with Annabeth here…" He trailed off, it was self-explanatory. His duties had trapped him here, again. Sometimes it was too much to be the perfect hero, he just wanted to be normal for a while.

"Raven." She corrected quickly and with way more urgency than he would've expected. Her eyes finally left the fire and she straightened, making him sit up too.

"What? Why would you care?" He studied her face for clues, it was one that he knew very well, but he still came up empty.

"Ravens are omens of death, Percy. Don't forget that." She caught his eyes as if she was trying to transfer her certainty to him through eye contact alone.

"Since when do you believe in omens?" He asked curiously, for a very practical, albeit eccentric girl, omens seemed a little too fanciful for her. She had visions, she didn't look into crystal balls.

"I'm an oracle, I'm kind of supposed to, aren't I?" She chuckled half-heartedly and a little morbidly. She was trapped in her own role just like him.

"When have you ever done what you were supposed to?" He teased and she smiled slightly.

"One of us should. She's dangerous Percy, I get bad vibes whenever she's around." She pleaded pointedly.

"So do I. That's because she's evil, it's not a supernatural thing, it's a normal thing that tends to happen when someone looks like they're about to commit a mass murder." Unfortunately he was only half joking. He was absolutely positive that Rachel wasn't getting an oracle vibe, just a sane person vibe.

"It's more than that, I just don't trust her." Rachel rarely had a hard time articulating exactly what she was thinking, but she seemed desperate to get him to understand something she didn't fully understand herself.

"Trust me, I don't either. It will be fine." He assured her honestly. There was nothing to worry about, he had his guard up already, and the tattoo. He was the one with the power, even if it didn't always feel like it.

"Hmmm." She murmured, as if she was just agreeing to pacify him rather than actually believing him. "Are you going to the victory party tonight?" She changed the subject easily, though clearly not without intent to go back.

"Probably, are you? Or will it do too much damage to your 'mystical maiden of the caves' rep?" He joked, it was still a little ridiculous, that the girl who painted her whole body for a fundraiser was the same one to host a timeless oracle.

"Maybe, I guess I'll see you there if I decide the damage will be worth it." She smirked, but he could tell from the way she curled her shoulders in that she had no intention of going. It brought him back to reality and out of this warm little bubble of comfort.

"I should get back." He sighed.

"Who'd you leave her with?" Rachel asked nervously, seeming to just then process that him being her meant that she had to be with someone else.

"Grover, but she was in the shower." He said slowly, knowing she wouldn't approve.

"That's was really bad idea," She said sharply, her eyes wide with surprise at his stupidity and her voice high.

"I know." He groaned, before slowly rising to his feet and jogging back to his cabin.

…

 _Raven_

Raven jumped when she stepped out of the bathroom to find Grover instead of Percy waiting for her. He seemed unsurprisingly nervous. Honestly, it was to be expected if the first time you saw a childhood friend after eight years was when she was your best friends slave. She couldn't pretend that it was any less awkward, or confusing for her.

She had loved her old job, and she was good at it. Breaking down Percy to a page of strengths and weakness had been easy, Clarisse had been easy, but Grover, that had been hard. How on earth could she pretend to be objective about him? Luke was even going to try to recruit him, until he learned of Grover's obsession with finding Pan, there was no way Grover would forsake the gods if it meant forsaking his life's goal. She knew that, but it didn't make any of this any easier.

"Where's Jackson?" She asked sarcastically, and something twisted in Grover's expression before he coached it back to a blank stare.

"He had to go check in with Malcolm about something, you remember him right?" His tone was accusatory, and for the first time she realized Grover was angry. She wasn't the only one who had been hurt here.

"Yeah, I ran into him the earlier." She crossed her arms, and tucked her hair behind her ear anxiously. Grover quickly gave her the once over and his eyes hovered somewhere near hip.

"Where's your knife?" Raven's stomach twisted when she remembered that night in the alley. Grover hadn't been there, but he had heard the story more than once, and he knew everything that blade was connected to.

"Your gods took it from me when they dumped me here." She resorted to her default tone, harsh and cruel, but it was a habit at this point. You had to be harsh to survive in Kronos' camps. You had to be strong, and you could never show weakness.

"I'm sorry," He said, and when she gave him a dirty look, he hurried to add, "I know how much it meant to you." She swallowed and nodded, her throat feeling tight with an emotion like grief, but she couldn't show it.

"Grover, you're the only one who I even marginally trust here." She admitted, and she didn't sound like herself anymore, she sounded about eight years younger and a whole war weaker. "I need to know something." He nodded, and he must have known what was coming because he leaned back against the wall, physically putting as much distance between himself and the conversation as he could.

"What happened to Luke?" She asked, her voice unwavering even as her heart thrummed out a rapid beat in her ears. This might be her only chance to find out the truth, since Jackson had rebuffed her. She knew the answer wouldn't be good, and she almost wished she had held back longer, had avoided the truth and lived in this happy little bubble. As long as she didn't know how it happened, she could pretend that it hadn't. She could pretend that Aphrodite had lied and that she had nothing to worry about it. At the same time, she couldn't deal with limbo forever; she knew that she had to face what had happened.

There were never any good options when it came to Luke, at least no rational options. He told her he had a plan before he chose to host Kronos; that he wouldn't allow himself to be burned up when Kronos finally arrived fully formed. She knew from the moment he said it, that the chances of him succeeding were slim. She had to believe that he had found a loop hole, at least until she knew otherwise.

"He's dead." He said the words darkly, and even though she knew that he was in pain, Grover's tone didn't show it. He just sounded sympathetic. They had been separated for much longer.

"How did it happen?" She asked, her hands trembling. She wouldn't cry; she wouldn't allow herself to, not now, and not with Jackson coming back any moment. Grover just shook his head, and scuffed his hoof along the wooden flooring.

"I don't know, no one does." He sounded so broken, and Raven bit her lip unhappily. "Except for Percy." He tacked on at the last moment, and when Raven's head popped up, her eyes wide, Percy strolled in.

"Hey man, did I miss anything?" Jackson asked, smiling like a charmer at both his friend and the girl he was keeping captive. All she could think about was the fact that talking to his best friend and his biggest enemy required the same degree of deception.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing." Grover answered too quickly; Jackson just gave them both a skeptical look before letting it slide. He went back to puttering around and Grover just cast a glance over his shoulder as he left.

Everything seemed flipped on its head. The only person who had the information she needed was the same person she despised. She had to get him to open up about something that he hadn't even admitted to his best friend. She didn't know what her plan of attack had to be but she did know one thing.

This changed everything.

A/N: Hello lovely readers, this is one of my favorite chapters to date and I hope you all enjoy it. Just as a note, I wanted to remind you guys that in this verse Raven wasn't on Mount Olympus, she was suffering from a poisoned stab wound with no medical care. There was nothing (that we know of) that could've stopped Kronos from overpowering Luke, no reminder of family to shift the power. As of right now, what happened on Olympus is a mystery. Who knows? Raven might be right. Everybody in this fic' has something to feel guilty about.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

 _Percy_

Something had changed and he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Annabeth was silent as she dug through her bag. She hadn't said anything since he came in and it just wasn't right. Where was the barbs, the anger, the resentment? She kept pulling things out of her bag and then putting them back in with little huffs. It was as if he wasn't even in the room. Grover had hurried out immediately after he arrived, but he didn't look too scarred, so it wasn't as if Annabeth had already filled her nastiness quota for the hour.

Curiously, he sat down on his bed for a moment and just watched her. He was stuck in this weird twilight zone where he had nothing to do and no idea what was going on. Why wasn't he making battle plans, why wasn't he training, why wasn't he on his way to a camp meeting, why wasn't he afraid? He felt like he had lost his identity. He cleared his throat, shaking those thoughts out of his head, he had to keep moving, try to limit it to one panic attack a day, thank you very much.

"So it seems like you teaching a class is out of the question." He threw out casually, watching as she stiffened at the address. It seemed like he was right, she had forgotten that he was in the room. That was a little concerning. It wasn't a good sign that she was that focused. He didn't like the thought of her having that much time to plan.

"I was only honest." she defended herself , but she didn't even seem to really have her heart in it. She glanced back at her bag, as if it contained the secrets of the universe. He'd have to take a peek in that bag at some point, just to see what Leila could've given her that would've had Annabeth that fascinated.

"You are legitimately insane." Even as he said the words, he was pretty sure that he should feel more surprised than he did. It didn't feel like a shock any more, he was the babysitter for an insane and homicidal teenaged girl. Wonderful. It's amazing how easy it was to adjust to absurdly difficult tasks after a while.

"I've been called worse." She said absentmindedly, her focus clearly not there, or maybe she was just very used to that insult, it wouldn't necessarily surprise him.

"Worse than what?" A clear voice called from the doorway. They both jumped slightly, reacting to the teen on the porch. Malcolm stepped into the cabin with the confidence of someone who had done it many times before, and had always been welcomed. It made sense, he had. Percy had always had an open door policy. He was alone in his cabin so it only made sense to make it a free space for anyone to come and chill when they needed to, or just rant to him for a little bit. It made it all a little bit easier to take care of his people when they knew he was good for it. He'd had ten year old daughters Aphrodite bawling because of something Drew had said and he'd had Ares kids who just wanted to nurse their wounds in peace for a little before going back into what Percy assumed was a 24/7 war zone.

"What are you doing here Malcolm?" Annabeth said with an air of exasperation he hadn't been expecting. Wasn't this _his_ home? His friend? Why did she think she had a right to be irritated?

"I'm your new supervisor." Malcolm seemed peppy at the prospect, versus the dismay which would be appropriate, and when it looked like Annabeth would protest, he added, "Chiron's orders."

"What do you need her for?" He felt weirdly parental. Not like the doting parent who thinks his daughter is too good for the peasants, more like the parent who goes to the school beforehand to warm the teachers ahead of time that they should feel free to discipline their child harshly.

"Early stages of building, minimal risk of her making anyone cry." He grinned at his own jibe, "You'd think that would be a new trait, but really that one has been around for a while." That was a little scary, envisioning a tiny Annabeth making other tiny campers cry, and possibly some regular sized campers too.

"Funny, lets go." Annabeth shrugged heading for the door with a strange confidence for someone in the dark. This was certainly a new Annabeth. He might not like this version, but he could definitely respect her. When she wasn't whining and threatening everything he believed in, her work ethic might even be admirable. Malcolm just shrugged, following after her easily. It was only when they were both out of sight that he realized he hadn't laid down any ground rules. Oops.

Raven

She realized as Jackson and Malcolm talked that her half brother's arrival had made her anxious. She felt this weird reluctance to leave her warden behind. It wasn't as if she trusted Jackson, but she was a big fan of "the devil you know." Either way, she couldn't get complacent, no matter what Grover had told her, she still needed to be on top of her game, maybe because of what he told her. She tossed a stupid comment over her shoulder and bounded out the door, faking certainty that she didn't have.

Malcolm was an uncertainty, which was one thing that she couldn't stand. She heard him follow in her steps and gave him a beat to catch up and lead the way. She wasn't exactly sure what this detail would be, but she knew she needed something to do. Something to keep her mind occupied. She couldn't let herself get so caught up in the ramifications of what had happened, of what Grover _said_ had happened. There'd be time to freak out, time to...grieve, but this wasn't it. First, she had to escape, while there was still a revolution to salvage.

She followed the younger boy carefully, scanning the courtyard as she passed through, she felt more wired than she had since she got here. This was the longest she had been with hostile supervision, but at least hostiles watched carefully. Her little run had been early in the morning and mostly hidden in the woods. She was rarely exposed, now she was anything but. To her eternal frustration, Malcolm didn't seem engaged enough to notice an attack. It made her realize that there was a vulnerability inherent in being away from Jackson and out in the open. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up straight and a the muscles in her back tensed. Her whole body was ready for a fight, even if it didn't seem like one was coming. Even though Jackson wasn't much of a fighter, and she knew that he could take anyone here, he seemed to have a large enough hero complex that he'd protect her. Not that she needed it, but while unarmed it was a nice assurance to have.

Malcolm had never been much of a fighter in the practical sense. He was the son of the war goddess, so of course he knew strategy and had some degree of athleticism, but his family had been even more messed up than hers, and he greatly preferred to keep all fighting in the theoretical. She was sure he fought some in Manhattan, but even she could admit that Jackson was the far superior fighter. Malcolm knew enough to stick to his wheel house and quickly launched into a description of one of his favorite things, coordinating projects.

"So it's pretty simple as of right now, thanks to Percy we've got permission to start making new cabins, and we're just starting the design process now, Chiron wanted us to start right away, so we figured you could help with working out some of the architecture, you always were the best at that…"

Malcolm always had a bad problem with rambling, and apparently her reappearance hadn't made it any easier on him.

"Sounds like a plan." She said with a tight smile. As tempted as she was to plant any number of structural weaknesses and easily attackable points, even she couldn't risk dozens of demigods lives without an immediate need. These were homes, and as much as she hated how the camp was run even she knew that a safe place to live for demigods was invaluable. If Kronos's army no longer existed, this might actually be the only safe place for these kids. She's recruit for the right cause later, for now, she'd keep this place safe as much as it pained her and as much as she wanted to burn it to the ground, she had to be sure that there would be something to take it's place in the aftermath.

Malcolm lead her towards her old cabin and she felt herself slow down. Very few places still made her feel like an eleven year old. This was one of them. She tightened her ponytail, shrugged her shoulders and prepared to pour over blueprints.

"You ready?" Malcolm asked cautiously. As oblivious as he may have acted sometimes, he knew the score.

"Of course. Just a bunch of brainiacs, even if they are more obedient than I'm used to." She threw in the taunt just to keep him from getting too touchy-feely. This wasn't a group therapy session, it was a task that she could focus on.

"Don't forget, I'm one of those obedient brainiacs." He threw back, opening the door.

"How could I, you're the favorite to my black sheep." She mocked as she stepped into the room. Her arms immediately crossed over her chest, expecting the record scratch moment when they noticed her arrival. No one noticed, or cared at all. She was offended for a moment, she was memorable goddamn it, then she realized there wasn't a single person here who she had grown up with left. She only knew a sprinkling of the campers from her own recon and none knew her. "What the hell happened?" She asked, turning to Malcolm and feeling appalled on levels she had experienced in a long time.

"Some grew up, a few are at college, some died, some went missing." He shrugged, and then added with a weird mix of pride and disbelief, "We're the oldest now." That was a terrifying thought, petrifying with the implications of that responsibility and the memories of how much older campers had to deal with. How often they had to save younger ones, how often they had to deal with their own failures and everybody else's. It was a good thing he was wrong.

"You're the oldest, now. I'm just here… until I can not be." She shrugged before pulling a chair around to join a group of squabbling tweens. "Let me see that." She grabbed the early blueprint with the air of authority. It was an easy role to slip back into. The three boys in front of her didn't question a thing, already program to accept any and all direction they were given, whether or not they should, and listened as she started pointing out minute flaws in their design. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't perfect yet either.

"Which one?" She asked, finding herself biting her lip as she scanned the lines, analyzed the scale, visually constructing the cabin in her mind. There was nothing defining about their sketch and if there was one thing she knew from spending time with the minors was that they were all very _defined._

"Huh?" The youngest-looking of the boys asked, looking at her with a strange blend of awe and dazed confusion.

"Which god?" She clarified, and her irritation was just a little tickle in the back of her mind. This felt like the purest breath of air, the easiest drink of water, the best breeze on hot skin; it felt like relief. She loved this, she lived for this, for planning, for designing, for seeing every angle, and every possibility. Even if it wasn't her favorite cause, it was one she could almost get behind. The minor gods had always been jilted by the Olympians, they had always deserved more credit. It was part of their goals, and she could still do something to further it, even if she had to do it under the umbrella of Jackson's post-war bastardization.

"Nike." One of the older boys answered. She was fine with letting them all blend together. Honestly blonde hair and grey eyes, they all blended together, herself included. Really, as much as she had changed on the inside, physically the only thing differentiating between them and her was her tattoo, which was a horrifying thought in it's own right, and one she would not dwell on no matter what.

"Give it cleaner lines, lay off on the strong part, it needs to look like it's about to burst forward into motion. I hate to play into clichés and don't you dare literally incorporate it, but think a little bit more along the lines of the swish. This needs to look swifter, less like a cement brick. Remember, Nike is a god _dess_ okay? It's okay for it to look a tiny bit feminine."

"Okay." The youngest shrugged, taking back the plan and immediately started to erase in places. Nodding with pleasure, she scanned the room. When she caught Malcolm's eye, he just raised an eyebrow. She shrugged noncommittally and got up, moving to another table. Her goal? Be tired enough that she could sleep tonight without ever having to think about any of what she had learned today. She was well on her way to a successful completion of that goal.

A/N: Hey guys, sorry this chapter took so long, and I'm even more sorry that it's so short. I should be putting out another chapter within this coming week and I'm really excited about this one, so stick around. PS: Happy Holidays


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

 _Percy_

The clanging of swords was its own soundtrack, the perfect back beat over the melody of controlled breaths. The world was blurred around the edges and the only thing he could feel was the thump and slice of Riptide. It was easy, flying through repetitive combinations. He could do this forever, as long as his partner didn't…

"I need a minute, goddamn it Jackson, how do you do that?" The Ares boy panted, his hands on his side.

"Again?" It was hard to workout your frustrations with swordplay when you had to keep stopping.

"Seriously? Dude we've been going for hours. I may be part war-god but even I think you are over training." Jake huffed, stumbling over to get a drink from his water bottle. Percy didn't have the patience for it. He was too wired, too frantic for breaks. He started slicing and stabbing at dummies, reveling in the straw flying everywhere. Anyone who suggested that yoga was the best form of relaxation had never tried hacking at things with a sword.

"C'mon, you need to go home dude, even you must need to rest occasionally" Jake prodded, nudging his shoulder to get his attention. "You know you're going to want to shower and get something to eat before the party tonight so you might as well stop now." Sighing, Percy conceded, carefully capping Riptide and wiping some of the sweat off of his face.

"I guess I am kind of tired." He shrugged. His Achilles blessing was a beautiful thing, he didn't feel anything on a physical level. He could fight for hours and sometimes that was exactly what he wanted, but the minute he stopped, he always felt like he could collapse on the ground in a ball with terrifying ease.

"You going tonight?" Jake called casually over his shoulder as he shoved his stuff back in to his bag.

"I think so." Percy shrugged, he wasn't necessarily in the mood to celebrate but maybe a party was just what he needed to remember that he had in fact won something.

"What are you going to do with it?" Jake raised an eyebrow mockingly; he had always been like that. He was the kind of guy to not only challenge you, but also make sure that you knew that he was challenging you.

"'It'? That's a messed up way of thinking of a person isn't it?" He had to keep his tone cool, as friendlier as they were and as good of a training partner as he made, Jake wasn't the kind of person to take offense lightly, and Achilles Blessing or not, Percy didn't want to fight him for real.

"I think we all need to remember what we're dealing with, a traitor and a monster, it may look like a regular demigod, but it's not." Jake had that twinge of crazy in his eye that you only really saw in the messed up people who believed every bit of crazy they were spewing. Everyone dealt with the stress of the war differently and going nutzo was apparently Jake's coping method, but he knew deep down, Jake was a good guy, he was just projecting, kind of violently.

"She is a human; she's done some messed up stuff, and I hate her just as much as you do but we can't let that turn us into monsters Jake." Percy spoke softly, trying to master that soothing tone Chiron used when a new kid was really distressed.

"Whatever" Jake snapped, clearly not even close to done, but that was an issue to be dealt with later, as he trudged out of the arena, he was trying to think of people capable of babysitting a pathological teenaged girl. The list was short.

...

When he opened his door, Annabeth was standing in sweats and a tank top frantically tossing articles of clothing onto the floor. He hadn't expected her to be back from work quite yet, but it looked like she had been waiting for a while. When she heard the screen door thud closed, she whipped her head around, looking murderous.

"Did you intentionally have your cronies give me solely slutty clothes or is it a part of their plan to get me to spread my legs for the savior of Olympus" She snapped, gesturing to the pile of stretch fabric, sparkles, and… was that an actual leather miniskirt or a belt?

"We've already covered that." He groaned, making a note to tell Leila to stop trying to make his life harder. Why should would ever feel the need to make Annabeth look hotter was a mystery to him. Things were already messed up enough as it is without her help.

"Oh no what was I thinking, you were totally innocent. Just like you are always totally innocent. These clothes are just the bow to the present that you didn't want." She snapped, her voice closer to a snarl than actual words. The implication that he was someone how at fault for this situation didn't go unnoticed, but it did go unappreciated. He sighed, conceding the argument in favor of keeping his sanity. He couldn't convince her of the truth no matter how hard he tried so what was the point anymore. He turned around, accepting that he needed to get some form of a distraction if he didn't want to go insane, and stuck his head out onto the porch. Luckily, he spotted one of Aphrodite's kids, walking by, everyone he had approached so far had left him with a hard and fast no, but maybe one of them would be less cowardly.

"Kayla! Is there anyone to babysit tonight?" He called, pulling out his best pleading expression, which usually worked on everyone except Rachel, Clarisse, and Leila.

"Are you crazy?" She rolled her eyes, putting her well manicured hands on her hips and cocking one very neat eyebrow.

"I can't leave her with 7 year-olds can I?" He groaned, dropping his head onto his door frame.

"I'm here!" Annabeth protested from behind him and he realized he had, in fact forgotten she was there. Huh, if only if it could have stayed that way.

"So since she's going…" Kayla smirked when he didn't correct her, it seemed like this was the only option. "Can we put her together tonight?" There was mischief in her expression, and he was very glad he was not going to be the target of that particular idea.

"I can hear you!" Annabeth growled from behind him, smacking his shoulder. That was just irritating, it didn't hurt or anything but the weird thudding feeling wasn't exactly comfortable.

"Sure she can be your personal Barbie doll." He felt a little spiteful as he grinned at Kayla.

"What!" She shrieked, and yeah, that actually hurt a little bit.

"Drop her off around five okay?" Kayla called, hurrying back to her cabin, presumably to tell her siblings the news that they'd have a new victim for tonight. He turned around, to find a very pissed off Annabeth glaring at him. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her eyes spelled out murder.

"Do you want me to make it an order?" He suggested, and the murder in her eyes only increased.

"Go to Tartarus Jackson." She spat, and he just shook his head.

"Already there." He groaned and flopped back on his bed. Maybe he could get a nap in before dinner.

"Percy!" A voice shouted from his door, dispelling that notion. He cracked open one eye before seeing Grover and forcing himself to sit up.

"Yeah?" He asked, and shot a glare at Annabeth, who had directed her glare at Grover, as if he could get her out of this situation.

"With all the new claimings, Chiron wants all of us out there to bring the new kids in, so I'm heading out tonight." Grover shrugged, and raised too brown paper bags into Percy's view. "And I heard what had happened at breakfast and brought you guys some food, just so you both ate something before tonight."

"How sweet, you make an adorable mother hen, Grover." Annabeth sneered, but grabbed the bag anyways. Grover looked legitimately hurt for a moment before Percy stood up and clapped him on the shoulder.

"Good luck man, stay safe." Grover nodded in agreement and trotted out. When he turned around Annabeth already had half her sandwich in her mouth. He raised an eyebrow suggestively.

"I was hungry all right?" She snapped.

"I hope Kayla torments you." He said legitimately. Who the hell would bully Grover?

"She will." Annabeth grumbled, and she almost looked a little remorseful at the prospect.

...

Percy happily napped and then threw on a fresh t-shirt and a spritz of cologne five minutes before he was supposed to retrieve his charge . When he showed up, little clusters of Aphrodite kids were meandering outside, heading for the Hermes cabin. Chiron did them the favor of turning a blind eye on nights like this, and Dionysus was just jealous he couldn't partake. He waited impatiently for Kayla to emerge, a little scared to intrude on Aphrodite kids getting ready for a party. It seemed like a terrifying procedure and almost as dangerous as walking in on Telekhines.

It was only a few minutes before an infuriated Annabeth stormed out, Kayla on her heels. Her poodle hair had been tamed and neatened so it fell cutely around her face and he didn't know what Kayla had done exactly but she had somehow managed to soften Annabeth enough to make her look… girly. She had this soft pink color on her lips and when she blinked he could almost make out the peachy color on her eyelids. She was dressed in this flowing shirt that showed off her shoulders, short little white shorts, and sandals. She looked…cute, in the sense that he wouldn't immediately chose her as the one most likely to commit a homicide just from looking at her.

"Lets go." She snarled, grabbing his wrist and tugging him away from the cabin. He had never seen anyone so angry over clothes, but he had to admit this was entertaining; he was even willing to let himself be dragged for a little bit before shrugging off her grip. When they walked up to the Hermes cabin he saw that the party was already in full swing, and Annabeth looked nervous. Maybe tonight would be fun after all.

...

"Don't get a drink, no mischief, just stand here." He ordered and a slight chill arched down his shoulder blades to the center of his spine. He realized now that it was following the path of the owl's wings etched into his back. She rolled her eyes and flicked one of the styled strands of hair out of her face.

"What am I your DD?" She sneered, looking at him with even more than her usual scorn.

"Precisely, except without the driving, just make sure everyone gets back to their cabins safe, no one gets too drunk, and nothing too crazy happens." Usually this was Grover's jobs but desperate times…

"So I'm camp mom?" She laughed incredulously, underestimating just how serious he was. This was the perfect way to keep her out of trouble and help everybody else too.

"Embrace your title with pride." He turned around, determined to put Annabeth out of his mind, at least for a little while. He twinned himself back among the crowd, accepting the bottle as if was handed to him. He took a large swig, embracing the slight burn with the tiniest grimace, and then another and another. He knew he'd regret this in the morning but at the moment he just felt his stress fading. The rest of the night blurred together, a never ending stream of drinks, never tasting a drop, only that same slight burn to even make him realize that he had downed another. The bass was so loud that it felt like the back beat was pumping blood through his veins. After a while, he was drunk enough to dance and he lost himself in the crush of bodies. Faces were dim and inconsequential all that mattered was that he was moving, not thinking, just moving. He could do this. He could survive like this.

...

 _Raven_

"Hey." The voice greeting her is friendly, for a change, and she peered around from her perch. Jackson had set her up in one of the inset windows, where she had stayed curled up for the past hour or so. She mostly just people watched, scanning the crowd. The only one approaching dangerously drunk was Jackson, but she wasn't worried. He had plenty of skanks draped over him in case of collapse.

She studied the guy curiously for a moment, mentally flipping through her files to place his face. She couldn't.

"Have we met?" She asked cautiously.

"Nope, but I've heard so much about you that I felt like I just had to say hello." He smirked, the twinkle in his eyes letting her know he was at least partially kidding. They were nice eyes for a guy, a warm chocolate brown and slightly almond shaped.

"I promise, only half of the rumors are true." She smirked back, enjoying the moment to be coy and young for a second.

"Which half?" He asked, picking up his lines right where she led him.

"I did take out a chimera but it was with a hammer not a screwdriver." She attempted to keep a straight face for a moment before letting herself laugh. He laughed with her and looked at her with an appreciative gleam in his eye. It was nice to be appreciated and it had been a long time since she had felt even just sexy. Even though she wouldn't admit it till the day she died, she could enjoy the affects all of the makeup and hair products had created.

"So Jackson?" He asked cautiously, a flicker of seriousness overtaking his face.

"Nothing more than a glorified babysitter, promise." She tried to not let the implication bother her more than it needed to. If she wanted to not go insane this summer, she had to push through Jackson created hiccups and relax a little bit.

"And you won't sprout fangs or anything like that right? People seem to talk about you as if you came right from Tartarus."

"Tartarus is just the summer home." She teased playfully, and he chuckled to himself. "Why is it that you're not terrified of me then? If I have such a reputation?"

"Maybe because I'm too new to know any better." He didn't seem to upset with his own ignorance, and maybe that was just how she needed them. Naïve and happy to stay that way.

"How new?" She asked appraising him carefully. He didn't look weather-beaten like the rest of the camp. He was refreshingly fresh.

"I just got here yesterday. It was a less of a shock than you'd expect when my summer school teacher sprouted fangs, and much more of a surprise when my basketball coach took off his pants."

"Beautiful." She grinned.

"I think so." He gave her a pointed look and then laughed at his own cheese. "Can I get you a drink?" The no was on her lips right as she realized her loophole.

"Yes, yes you can."

...

 _Percy_

Leila cut him off right around the same time the room started to tilt sideways sporadically and staying vertical was harder than it should've been. It was probably a good idea. After about an hour and some water the world had clarified sufficiently enough that he knew what was going on and he didn't like it. Still, Leila was watching him too closely for him to fully let loose, so he just carefully took little sips, watching his people, counting heads, it was so painfully ingrained that he didn't know how to stop, at least not while sober. It wasn't like he would run out of things to watch, even while a little queasy.

Annabeth was about to jump on a table. Percy cringed and had to take a swig of beer just watching her. He wasn't sure what it was exactly that she had been drinking, but he knew he needed to make sure he never went near it. Maybe they didn't have alcohol in whatever cesspool she had been living in, or maybe she just finally learned not to care, but whatever it was, she was hammered. She was on the table for about two minutes before she slipped off and landed on her ass.

"Oops!" She squealed. He wouldn't have ever have called her for a ditzy drunk; he probably would've guessed angry if he had too. But from what he had seen tonight, she was definitely stupid, and a little bit slutty. Case in point, she had moved on from table dancing in order to dance on the improvised floor towards the back of the room. Most people stayed the hell a way from her. A few of them even cast glances at him with mixed fear and reproach. It wasn't exactly protocol to bring the enemy to the victory party, but he wasn't really in much of a celebratory mood. The irony of the situation was not lost on him. It might actually make great lyrics to a bad country song "The loser's dancing all night long/and the winner's getting' lost in a country song."

As he watched, others slowly started getting closer and closer to Annabeth, not necessarily with her but around her. It didn't surprise him that the first few to meander over were all from the Hermes' cabin, those kids wouldn't let anything ruin a party. Slowly others trickled in in order to follow their lead. The one who was on her in seconds was the new kid; he had only came in yesterday. Percy could vaguely recall that he was a son of Hephaestus but not much else. He got momentarily concerned when the new kid pulled her aside and squirted chocolate syrup in her mouth and then handed her the shot. Annabeth downed it in one go and then licked her lips so obscenely he could see it across the room, apparently she was a lot of a slutty drunk.

She certainly wasn't the only one, he thought, then wondered for a second if he said that allowed. The girl who was literally resting her head in his lap didn't seem to react so he supposed it didn't matter. He wasn't a hundred percent sure what her name was but when he sat down, she immediately started acting friendly and when he put his arm around the back of the couch she decided she wanted to chill with her head on his thigh. He was idly fidgeting with her hair but that was more ADHD than affection. She was talking but it didn't make any sense and he didn't care so…

He was sober enough to know that hooking up with someone right now wouldn't be a good idea. He had spent the past few years avoiding any sort of commitment, just in case he, you know, died, so he kept it all casual, but right now, he couldn't do anything, not with Annabeth hanging around. He watched her stumbling out of the crowd, into the bathroom, probably to hurl, and as if on cue, new kid stumbled over to him. He felt a little like a bad mob impersonation, lounging on a couch idly petting a dainty little creatures head while waiting to be approached. He couldn't decide if that was a bad or a good thing.

"Hey Jackson" New kid shouted, straining to be heard over the base. He was just in the beginning stages of drunk, everything was probably a little wobbly and he couldn't get that stupid grin off of his face if he tried.

"Hi." He wasn't in the mood for this. New kids always depressed him, made him realize how nice it had been before he knew the truth. Sure, he'd had an amazing life at camp, but the lows were brutal. What he wouldn't give to still believe that he was normal.

"Isn't this great?" The kid slurred just a little bit, his wobbling posturing showing his dopiness more than his speech.

"Yup, the war's over, it's all done." Percy felt like he had to say that to himself too often. He was not drunk enough for this, at least not anymore. Freakin' Leila.

"Yeah, and you guys have all buried the hatchet. I have really good timing." New kid seemed impressed with himself as if his arrival had anything to do with what he did, rather than Percy sacrificing everything for kids like him. New Kid didn't notice him getting pissed off, too focused on scanning the crowd. He slumped when he finished, pathetically disappointed.

"You're in to Annabeth." Percy spit out and it was horrifying. This was exactly the kind of person who she could prey on, stupid kids who didn't know any better. It hadn't occurred to him before that she would do it like this, not recruit them with the usual dogma, but by being _like-able_. He didn't think anyone would be dumb enough to fall for it.

"I thought it was Raven." New Kid corrected with the wit and presence of a baby deer. The girl in Percy's lap huffed, pushed his hand away and teeter-tottered out of his vision, finally getting a clue that he wasn't in the mood.

"It's just- it doesn't matter, how can you even think about her like that, after everything she's done?" Percy argued. They weren't stupid, New Kid had been briefed about what had been going on; he'd been warned. He knew that this girl was a monster and now he was doing shots with her.

"But everyone said that they weren't really our enemy. Frankly, I'm considering this her community service. And as far as I'm concerned she was just as tricked as much as the rest of them maybe even more so. She was close with Luke right?" New Kid said and what sucked was that his facts weren't wrong, his perception was just horribly distorted.

"Yeah. Before and… after." That was the word they always used when talking about Luke and his betrayal, _After,_ a euphemism if Percy had ever heard one.

"We all want some good healthy fun, and I am all for you all putting this summer in the past and having some fun with pretty girls." New Kid shrugged. "You're included in that by the way." It was thrown out so casually, and it took him a minute to realize that he could. If he wanted to, he could actually try for something a little more significant than what he was used to. That thought was unpleasantly sobering and he realized that he didn't even want to be here. What the hell was he celebrating for? People were dead; he'd killed someone. He couldn't even keep his people alive, all these people thought he was a hero but he was just a coward, a failure. Hades, he just wanted to get away. He found himself standing up and wobbling through the crowd, leaving New Kid behind. He reached the bathroom and banged once on the door. Annabeth stuck her head out, looking thankfully vomit free and less thankfully irritated.

"We're leaving." He snapped, and a cold chill ran right down his spine. It hurt in the same way that ice hurts if you hold it against bare skin for too long, almost like a burn, a warning that frostbite was on it's way.

"Okay." She stumbled and he realized she wasn't just drunk but sloppy drunk. She stumbled out beside him, clinging to his shoulder for support. This was going to be a messed up night.

A/N: I know it's a day late but I had terrible technology issues with this one. I really like how this chapter played out and I'm very excited to hear what you guys think. What do you think about New Kid? And Jake? Is Drunkabeth what you would've pictured? Did anybody else really appreciate the image of Camp Mom Grover taking care of everyone or was it just me?


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

 _Percy_

Annabeth could barely stand; she was leaning heavily on his side. She was giggling at nothing and she'd occasionally drift off, stumbling away in the wrong direction. He'd have to reach out and grab her, and then she'd get giggly again. He wasn't fully with it himself, but the world was only slightly wobbly, not spinning.

He kept staring at her neck, the way her hair fell, the golden strands draping over the slim, strong muscles in her neck. He couldn't stop thinking about how Annabeth was so toned. She wasn't bulky, she still had a figure, she was just lithe. Why was it that he was only attracted to girls that terrified him? Hades, that was a dangerous train of thought, and one much better dealt with when sober.

A _nnabeth-Dang it, She means Raven, her name's Raven, why is the ground spinning?_

She was having a hard time focusing; everything felt warm and fuzzy, and there was an arm, a strong arm around her shoulders. It felt nice, snuggly. She hadn't snuggled in a really long time. She missed snuggling. Snuggling was good. Warm and good and soft and safe. Gods she liked safe. She hadn't been safe in a really long time. It was so nice to be safe. If she could feel like this all the time. She hiccuped and a small residual taste of the mint shots she had downed tingled in the back of her throat. Those had tasted really good, way better than the first beer she had. Why would people drink expired juice mixed with battery acid and call it cool and refreshing?

She noticed something weird about one of the cabins, it had started tilting; she went to walk towards it, and then suddenly she was cold. And on the ground.

"C'mon, up you go." A quiet male voice said in her ear. It wasn't her friend, dang it, what was his name. She couldn't remember, it was too fuzzy. He was soooo nice though.

She was being led up the porch, and she was proud of herself for making it up the stairs. She wasn't sure how well that was going to go at first. To be fair, the warm friend helped her quite a bit. All she could think about was sleep, so when warm friend guided her to the bed, it was the best thing she could imagine.

"Thank you…" She mumbled, snuggling into the blankets, she sat up suddenly, ignoring the sudden speeding up of the spinning and wrapped her arms around Warm Friend's neck. "Thank you." She repeated and she didn't realize that she had even done it before she mushed her lips against her friends cheek.

"No problem." He groaned, and she heard him walk away as she focused on trying to make the room stop spinning. Her brain broke through the haze just briefly for her to remember who Warm Friend is, who he always is.

"I love you Luke." She sighed and finally drifted off in the warm bed.

…

Percy groaned quietly to himself when he finally managed to pry his eyes open, only to be greeted with a violently piercing headache. Last night probably hadn't been a good idea, but what was one? He glanced around the moment he could convince his eyes to focus, and to his surprise, there was no bush of blond curls on the floor or even in Tyson's bed, where he had left her the night before. No his little Raven had flown the coop.

The sudden sound of violent gagging from the bathroom dissuaded him of that notion quite quickly. Lovely. He peeked towards the door and groaned,, ignoring his headache to bark out. "Run the water next time." It was hangover protocol but he doubted that Annabeth had much experience. Rigid military protocol and all that jazz.

He didn't want to think about what she had said right before she had passed out. Hades, he was tempted to order her to never mention it again, but gauging from the heaving noises coming from the other room, he'd bet that there was a significant chance that she wouldn't even remember it.

He should've left her on the ground outside.

But no, he shouldn't have done that because that was a dick move and he wasn't a dick. Or at least he tried not to be a dick. Less of a dick. It was too early for this shit.

…

When he woke up again, his headache had disappeared and he was relatively recovered. He reached for the water bottle that he kept on his bedside table and took a huge swig. Water was important. He woke up a little bit more and glanced around his room; he noticed the blankets dangling off Tyson's cot and cringed at the thought of how badly his inspection score was going to go down. Silena usually fudged his score just because she got how busy he was training but not he didn't have an excuse. He has his own shower, so it's not that big of a deal. It's more pride. A stupid thing to be proud of, but if you bomb your inspection too many times in a row, Chiron starts taking privileges away.

Speaking of problems, he was missing one. Groaning, he stood up and knock on the door to the bathroom. No reply came, and when he creaked open the door, it was empty. Yet, his back wasn't tingling and as far as he knew, the tattoo's charm was still in place, so what harm could she really do?

…

 _Raven_

She trudged through the woods, kicking at stray sticks and stones with more aggression than was probably necessary. She had been so stupid. It wasn't like she was some small town hick at her first college party. It wasn't even her first time drinking, not even close, she just had been so pissed off and lonely and anxious and it was just easy. Until she threw up six times and couldn't keep water down.

The world was a terrible place and she would probably never be able to consume any peppermint ever again. She had messed up, goddamn it she was smarter than that. She didn't even remember the end of the night or anything until she woke up hugging the toilet. Thank god she had gotten to the bathroom. She wasn't sure Jackson would ever forgive her if she threw up on his floor. For that matter, she wouldn't have forgiven herself.

When she had limped out of the cabin, her intention had been to go for a run, until she took one jogging step and almost collapsed. She supposed a walk would have to do to clear her head instead.

She had gotten distracted last night and that couldn't happen, he had to focus. Around the fifth upchuck she had realized what a f*ck-up she had been, how selfish she had been. So she had wanted to have fun? She didn't deserve fun. She had gotten herself captured, and it was her strategy that they had relied on. She had been the one who had left her friends vulnerable to attack. She had messed up on that bridge and she continued to mess up everyday since, even when she was out of it. The only way she could make it right was to avenge them. Her shoulder twinged slightly, and she quickly moved her thoughts on, careful to not dwell long enough to incapacitate herself. She had to find out what had really happened to Luke and she had to inflict it on Jackson himself. Then, she'd leave this hell hole. Another sharp jab of pain hit her, but she shook it off, right as she broke the tree line and found herself in the midst of the bustling campers. She scanned the crowds for a minute, looking for familiar faces and smiled brightly when she recognized one.

"Hello Girly, How's it going?" She called across the space. It was too easy. Silena stiffened and Raven smirked while she watched her swallow tensely. If Jackson was going to use her name to toy with her, she saw no reason why she couldn't do the same to his little friends.

"Don't call me that." Silena's voice was tight, and bordered on mean, but Raven just laughed harshly. Sweet princess Selena had her own issues; she grabbed Raven's arm and dragged her into the small gap between the Aphrodite cabin and Dionysus's. Whoever had said that Aphrodite kids were soft or weak had never seen anything resembling the murder currently etched in Silena's eyes.

"What, aren't you proud of Luke's nickname for you? Tell me Silena, what was it like to sell out everyone you know?" Raven smirked. She was a lot of things but she wasn't a liar, and she never played both sides, unlike Silena.

"Can you lower your voice?" The brunette hissed, her eyes narrowed nervously as she glanced around.

"Oh, what, you don't want people to know what side you really picked?" Raven quirked an eyebrow, vividly remembering Silena's initiation, when she swore to forever be loyal to demigods above gods. So much for that, "Geez, Silena, you choose _us_ , and loyalty doesn't end when a war does, Girly." Raven knew that, of course, that's why she was here, that's why she was a prisoner, that's why she was desperate to escape, and that was why Silena was going to help her.

"You know how it was Raven, okay? I didn't want to do what I did, but Luke…" Silena shook her head, a self pitying expression twisting up the child of Aphrodite's elegant features. Raven wasn't dumb enough to fall for it, not to mention, she wouldn't stand for anyone stomping all over Luke's memory like that. He wasn't a manipulator, they all made their own choices. It was a good thing she knew just where to hit Silena.

"Shut up. You sold Charlie out for Luke and got him blown up, you can't blame that on anyone but yourself and Jackson." She spat, and something crippling washed over Silena's face. It would've made Raven feel sympathetic if she believed any of it was real. People who were really in love don't hurt each other, at least not intentionally.

"I never, ever sold Beckendorf out!" Silena hissed, defending herself with venom. It's too bad Raven had the antidote on hand.

"Who told me that they were planning an attack on the boat?" She cocked an eyebrow, projecting her smugness with pride. She had Silena's biggest sin at easy disposal, ready whenever. Silena froze, and stared down at her perfectly painted toes peeking out of her sandals.

"I didn't think he'd get blown up." She says softly, with no fire, just guilt. She had plenty to be guilty of.

"Honestly, this "poor little princess me" routine is really getting old, Silena." This witch was the only one who could betray everyone she knew and still get their sympathy. She kind of admired the brains necessary, if she wasn't such a despicable snake.

"I'm not acting!" Silena snarled angrily; she had always been so stubborn about Beckendorf. No matter how quick she was to betray camp she always demanded they not harm Charlie, and they had tried their best, but there was only so much they could do to avoid harming a traitor.

"How on earth could you pretend that you were in love with him?" She asked, frankly a little curious, it had to take skill to be that good of a con artist, she even fooled herself.

"I was I love with him, I meant every word I ever said to him." Her eyes were watering, and that was kind of impressive, that level of commitment to her lie.

"Whatever you need to believe to sleep at night." She shrugged and it seemed for a minute as if Silena was going to continue defending herself. "Listen, I don't care what you believe, we both know these people will throw you out the minute I tell them the truth. Think about it Silena, you've witnessed how they treat me, can you even imagine how badly they'll treat you? I fought them, but you, you betrayed them, lied to them, you are so much worse than I am."

"I am nothing like you." Silena spat. "These are my friends, they care about me, they would never hurt me."

"Are you willing to bet, because if you're that confident, why are we hiding in an alley?" She whispered, grinning as she made her point. Silena stiffened, the color draining from her face. "I mean, if you want, we can make the announcement together, we can tell them all about everything that you did. Do you still have that bracelet?"

"What do you want?" Silena gritted out through her teeth, pointedly not looking in Raven's direction. For the first time since she arrived, Raven felt the addicting and pleasurable rush of power and control.

"I'll let you know when I need you." Raven grinned, practically flouncing out of the alley with glee. She finally had some traction in the matter and she was more than ready to start making steps forward. This camp would finally pay, and they had given her a golden opportunity, to destroy it from the inside out.


End file.
